# April 2014 - Competition Training Logs



## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Winter won't let go of her grip here in the Northeast so maybe if I post April's training log thread a day early we can push her out while waving bye-bye? :wave::wave:

I will be looking at a few online assignments today since I gave up on trying to get to work in our icy/snowy mess  I need to figure out a schedule of sorts - so much to do, so little time.

Towhee will be away for most of April but at least she finally came into season so I can plan for her training & showing schedule when she gets home again.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Phoenix is entering the truly fun stage of training - he's at the age where he can really learn new, more advanced concepts, and the next year will be the most fun training of his lifetime, where he's learning all the new stuff. The initial teaching of skills is always my favorite stage. So I have to remind myself to work Flip too, because I've never been as fond of the "fixing" and " tweaking" stages, although that is what will make up the majority of a dog's training life.

Yesterday in tracking class we started the first steps of training turns. My instructor teaches the dog to track arcs before introducing 90 degree turns. This was our first time having the dogs track anything that wasn't a straight line. Lots of fun to see the proof that he's actually tracking and not just running in a straight line.

Did some field work yesterday too. He got a little distracted by the wild pig poop on the land retrieves :yuck:. Nothing was distracting him on those water retrieves though, he loves them! I'm a little surprised at how well he's taken to water, because he didn't seem like a water loving puppy around the house. Flip got to work some hand thrown marks. We worked on being steady, which is a struggle for him.

Started formal heeling finally with Phoenix too. I posted video of his first heeling steps at the end of the March thread.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

My immediate plans (this week) = getting out and training since the weather is finally warming up. I want to go train the dogs somewhere. 

Yes, I was so crazy as to look up a training location in that far away place (45-50 minutes away) to see if I could get Bertie into back to back obedience and conformation class tonight. Both drop in classes. But yeesh - there's an hour between classes? >.< 

Otherwise, class tomorrow, Wednesday.... grooming session Thursday, dog show Friday.... and I'm planning to do a little obedience doodling at the show with Bertie. 

This month's goals are teaching Bertie to walk slow without my hand being in front of his nose. And getting Jacks ready to show in pre-open (I would have the really low for him). Unfortunately, I think Bertie will be ready to show in graduate novice LONG before Jacks is ready (that one stinky stay they have to do).


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## IndyBindy (Nov 4, 2011)

Loved the video! How old is he now? He looks great. My new boy is 15 weeks. Doing great with foundation stuff, but can't wait til he's just a bit older to get going on some other work too! 

Indy is doing well. Private lesson Friday, trial this weekend. Just showing in novice to keep us honest. Getting real close to open. He would easily qualify, but we are still working on the tiny details. 



Loisiana said:


> Phoenix is entering the truly fun stage of training - he's at the age where he can really learn new, more advanced concepts, and the next year will be the most fun training of his lifetime, where he's learning all the new stuff. The initial teaching of skills is always my favorite stage. So I have to remind myself to work Flip too, because I've never been as fond of the "fixing" and " tweaking" stages, although that is what will make up the majority of a dog's training life.
> 
> Yesterday in tracking class we started the first steps of training turns. My instructor teaches the dog to track arcs before introducing 90 degree turns. This was our first time having the dogs track anything that wasn't a straight line. Lots of fun to see the proof that he's actually tracking and not just running in a straight line.
> 
> ...


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

he's 5 months


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## KeaColorado (Jan 2, 2013)

Kea was spayed about a week and a half ago, so she's on "restriction". We're both going stir crazy. I taught her a new trick ("speak") and today I pulled out the balance disc and we practiced front feet on, sit on the disc, wave on the disc and speak while on the disc. It was fun and she just loves to learn, so at least her brain is engaged. Then we worked on rear end awareness and putting back feet on the disc. So not necessarily competition prep, but I guess in a round-about way it is since all this laying around is not good for her conditioning! This Wednesday will be 2 weeks since surgery, so we'll be back to walks and fun heeling practice outside. 

In other news, I signed up for a class through the Denise Fenzi online dog sports academy - Raising a Performance Puppy! And I booked my flight to go get the puppy in May. I'm getting really excited for him to get here.  The class starts tomorrow, and I'm doing the "bronze" level since I don't actually have the puppy yet. I've never done one of these classes, but after e-mailing with the instructor, it sounds like it will set us up nicely for competition in the future. I will do puppy kindergarten and basic obedience with him at our local training center, but I don't feel that the center is really geared toward higher-level performance, and I've had to do a lot of backtracking and re-training of certain things (like HEELING) with Kea that we didn't train the right way the first time. Louisiana...I'm gonna go watch your video right now!!


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Tonight at class we did individual open runs, followed by group heeling, recalls, and stays. I have to work on walking faster when heeling (so I tried to make a mental note as to the speed I should walk since I thought I already was walking fast...) and my foot work on the about-turn, need to work on that too. Also, for some reason, I don't walk in a straight line, I guess I'm kinda weaving or something, I don't know. I'm glad we've started spending the time to do these individual runs though, they are helpful in many ways . 

Finley again started to jump up after I took the dumbbell after the retrieve over the high jump. Twice now, so it is a problem that I created, but I don't think there's any more precipitation in the forecast for a few days anyway. Our backyard was looking like a swamp so I haven't done any jump work at home to address the issue. We should be able to get to that this week. 

On the recall, when Finley heard "Call your dog" she leaned forward and sat back, and waited for me to call. I love watching them think about it, and get it right. 

Plans for this week...In addition to the usual, Thursday and likely Sunday, will be an outing day for both girls. Finley for heeling, attention, and stays in distractions. Probably a shopping center where people are bringing in their carts, ect. Banshee pretty much the same thing, but will include an inside the store situation where people may want to pet her. I will be starting a class with her on Saturday. It's much more local, but not competition geared. More basic stuff and socialization, I hope to get her CGC this spring, or early summer. After that Finely and her will probably switch weeks off and on at class. That's about it from this neck of the woods


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

After Sundays just ok training session yesterday we trained twice once in my yard and once at my club. The difference was vast between yesterday and Sunday .In the yard DR not perfect ( fronts) but leaving me - turns - taking the mark - no over achieving attempts all three gloves very nice. The new gates for go- outs working out well with 4 very nice go outs and jumps on both bar and high.
BJ done twice on order which he took each time with the second one giving a good front and finish. ROF-ROHJ - Recall all done twice all successful exercise other than a couple fronts.
Last night at club he did not take the correct line on the #1 glove the first time but did on his second turn at it but the#2and#3 glove was done well even got a good front this exercise is vastly improved not perfect but really coming along well. Go-OUTS all four two against gates and two against the wall all pretty nice bait was used on one and after completion party and treats. Heeling and fig 8 very very nice and accurate he was paying full attention to me . Two straight recalls with straight fronts albeit both on one side. MSFE great lockup call to heel slower than I like but he did sit straight in heel position and the actual exam he didn't move but again watched the woman going over him like the exorcist. He was both sessions yesterday much cleaner working than Sunday and I was very pleased. This morning I'm going toSCKC for drop in and will bring articles along to practice with noise and distractions .



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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

This morning we had some timed sessions in the house

*Me: *about turn footwork

*Faelan: *_3 min: _Slow heeling with about turns. Short distance signals followed by left turn heeling. _Untimed:_ complete set of articles metal followed by leather with a finish for the leather_. Untimed probably 2 minutes_: Shoulder then hip flexibility exercise - Tall (Standing up on rear legs) and then the yellow peanut rolls and then stand/sit while lengthwise on peanut.

*Brady*_: 3 min_: Heeling starts followed by about turns. Normal pace with left turns and 1-2-3 halts_. _Stands out of motion, my returning to heel position, started teaching drops with him coming towards me. _ Untimed_: Complete set of articles metal first then leather: Perfect so I started working on his fronts as well (using hands will switch to front box). _Untimed probably 4 minutes_: Shoulder then hip flexibility exercise - Tall (Standing up on rear legs) and then the yellow peanut rolls followed by stand/sit while lengthwise on peanut; he is unfamiliar with the peanut so the sit was very tough for him.

*Casey:* 2_ min:_ Heeling with some signals and recalls, fronts and 1-2-3 halts. _Untimed:_ full set of articles metal first followed by leather - my squatting to receive the article and praise him up  Followed by left/right shoulder & hip touches, on that half circle thingee for front strength training and some downward dog stretching.

It was a very good session with each dog - I miss my Towhee but she'll be home by the end of the month.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Just now returned from Stone CityKC and we had a pretty good session. I worked articles in a aisle where a Dobe was crated and when sent Nugget did get distracted for a moment as the Dobe did bark at him but the good part was he went back to work and got each article correctly and then we did the exercise again and it was very nice because he didn't allow himself to be distracted.YEA!when our turn for the utility ring came we again did the DR with a treat toss first and then the gloves formerly as in a trial. YEA!!! Success no overachievement-no missing the mark-no second order to (take it) nothing incorrect at all I did however say come as he approached the gloves and tried to help with the fronts. This DR exercise has come so far in just a couple weeks from what it was its like a miracle . Go outs were very nice with two of four being baited all were straight going and so were the sits. Signal exercise was done ok but I would like the actual signals for the down sit and come to be done faster. In open work today all exercise done well but our usual poor fronts on some still plague me although the open nemesis the BJ was done twice with straight f+f . So overall a pretty good day of training and tomorrow we have a day off as both Sadie and Nugget go to the groomer for their monthly spa day.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Tonight's session was high on motion and low on stressful learning 

Faelan, Brady and Casey all got to play 'Fly' or circle the pylon (just one for now). To help with agility handling and tight wraps, they needed to circle from the direction of my outstretched arm (no verbal yet) and just wrap once and come flying on back !! we worked up to perhaps 25 feet away from the pylon.

Then Faelan and Brady got to play Lead Outs around the clock - low jumping at 18 inches and only one jump tonight. Brady-boy broke his wait a few times so I guess it is also proofing his Wait LOL. Both the working dog & I rotated from about 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock; one of us changing position at a time at perhaps 20 feet from the jump. It will get more complex but this is Brady's first time ever and Faelan has not played this game since last summer.


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## Titan1 (Jan 19, 2010)

Titan had to go back to Moving stand class.... naughty old man! Had a good weekend showing and Titey pants was a hoot... forging on the moving stand and then deciding he could take some extra steps...otherwise had some great runs after months of doing nothing..respectable... and I am very proud of him. So we worked stands..lol rest was good ...and great fun..I rented ring time for Mighty and he did really well. Did go outs in a strange building, gloves, all of open, and while there were distractions.. he is finally growing up.. I put him in Rally again and am using it as a run through so I can control the ring and help when needed. He scored a 100 ..and is working very well... my baby is finally growing up! we have a show in a couple weeks..


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Last night's hunting class was a bit of a roller coaster

Positives

Retrieved bumpers with enthusiasm
Picked up bumper on each command
Responded to each hand signal correctly
Came when called every time
Very solid on wait command
Sat on whistle

Negatives

Aroused over threshold when we arrived (unworkable) - very excited to see Dad
Attention and Focus - easily distracted
Got in a scuffle with a dog in class 
Dropped bumper every time upon returning

Thank god we're signed up for "Get Focused" in desperate need.

ETA: Just wanted to add that my BF and Bernie did awesome at class. Bernie's doing incredible. He's a bit finicky still about picking up the bumper, but his recall has improved tremendously, and he returned to heel and delivered to hand every time. His reactivity when he's working is at an all time low, even surrounded by other dogs. Its so great to see. I'm going to go through the formal retrieve with him to refresh him on hold and get a cleaner pick up. No doubt that a WC is in his future this fall.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Ahh, the importance of videos ... while I was able to see and react to head & shoulder positioning, the slinging wide on the outside figure 8 post will need to be watched ... of course it may be partially due to the incline we were on, but the video indicates it may be something more than the driving through the corner I thought it was and calls for my keeping a closer eye.

Here are Brady & I working the Figure 8 directly after I got home from work and pottied the dogs after a long day .. well I set up the Bozo Punching Bags outside as well  This is cold with no warm up.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I am signed up for Bronze  




coaraujo said:


> Thank god we're signed up for "Get Focused" in desperate need.


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Sunrise said:


> I am signed up for Bronze


I wish I had recorded today's training session. I'm Bronze as well, but it would have been a perfect baseline video. It was purely designated to working on Oliver's tug drive - because I think that will help us with his focus. We were really making some progress with tugging outside and then all of a sudden he was off. Caught wind of something and was smelling all around.  Guess we're not ready for tugging outside yet.

I can't even keep my dogs focus when I'm trying to play a game with him, jeesh :no:!


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

*Wednesday Class -*

I'm just so happy, tickled, and.... HAPPY tonight. Jacks had the best class he's had in a very long time. Not just him doing everything well, but him being a happy little guy. 

Adele proofed flat retrieves and ROH's with us, and very happy to say that he marched right in there to get his dumbbell each time regardless of where she put it on him. There wasn't even any hesitation at all. 

With the high jump too, one of the times the dumbbell bounced to the right and he took the jump, got his dumbbell and maneuvered back to the left to take the jump and he did this happy spring over it. I was just so happy to see that.  

Broad jumps were all motivation - me putting a target out there for him and tossing treats back through my legs instead of asking for a front. We started with 2 boards and built that up to 3. I kept the jump at 32", but I think it's fairly possible we may be building back up to 48.... if I decide to do that. 

Moving stands - solid. 

We did team heeling, figure 8's, and DOR's.... <- Meaning there were 4 of us, so she put us through a team heeling pattern, we did figure 8's together, and drops together. <- That was actually a LOT of fun. Glad I had Jacks (easy button with heeling) out there.  

Stays - I went out of sight and was thrilled to see him do the full stays with this happy relaxed look on his face. It just was a very awesome thing to see. Great class for him. 

Bertie did pretty good. I have a few handler issues with him from me "babying" him so much. :doh: One of those is me turning my upper body, and the other is moving leash hand up and down on the figure 8. 

Basically - we did heeling, pace change, sit, etc drills. He is starting to get better with the slows (all my practice drills here at home paying off maybe).... his figure 8 is coming along with him finding heel and keeping up. He was laggy, but got better. 

Stands - solid. 

Retrieves - he basically was so frantic to retrieve his dumbbell, he managed to trip over his own feet and face-planted the floor and KEPT RUNNING just so he could leap 4 feet in the air and pounce decisively on the dumbbell.... *chuckles* <- Next few retrieves, I aimed at the wall and that stopped the pouncing. 

Retrieve over high jump - did a couple of those. Lost some of his enthusiasm after a few reps so tucked the dumbbell under arm and reverted to the treat toss over the jump game. 

Stays - rock solid with me assuming a more formal position (no talking, no going in every 30 seconds to reward, etc). 

Stand - I have to add that I begged the guy in the next class to do a conformation stand with Bertie again. Much better than last week, even though Bertie did get wide-eyed on the butt check. :

Just basically good class for both dogs. They must have felt good tonight.

And or there was something in the air. Stepped outside to potty Jacks and check on Bertie who hangs out in the car during Jacks' class - and the night air was alive with coyotes howling.


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## Thalie (Jan 20, 2008)

I am stepping in here quietly, quietly... in awe of what your dogs do.

Our goal is Rally; we have only taken classes at Petsmart. Our trainer there is more interested in the service dogs side of working but has gotten two of her Leonbergers in the Obedience ring previously so she has been a good resource so far. Now I have to decide between two places to start taking Rally classes. The one farther away sounds like a better fit for the Imp. We are far far from being able to enter a ring but working on all the RN signs while still battling squirrels, ducks, and friendly people with the plain loose leash walking. The Imp's focus with low distractions is at around 1 minute so far so I have also signed up for the FE105 at the Bronze level. 

Col is the first of my three I have been doing any classes with and hope to get to some kind of performance venue in the future. One of my biggest challenges is finding places with mid-level distractions to try any kind of proofing - only the big box petstores allow dogs and ... Col is car sick after more than 5 minutes so any outing out of the neighborhood requires planning and supplies. On the other hand, when you consider that a mosquito is a distraction to her, I really do not have to get out of the backyard to find those.

So today, we worked on our weak side- left turns (all kinds), call front finish left forward, call front finish right halt, 1-2-3 steps with halts, and the beginning of a figure 8 using only 2 cones. This last one did not go so well because the cone ended up on its side with Col's head inside. Must be the weather changing to thunderstorms, lol.

I have been reading yall's thread for a while now and ... sometimes I do not even understand what you are talking about so... I have a lot to learn.


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Took the girls out for their training today. (Weather was nice, and it's supposed to rain tomorrow...)

Finley seemed to go back and forth with focusing. We were on a sidewalk of a strip mall that has a variety of different stores with people going in and out, the busy parking lot, and road, ect. Did some heeling, with right, left, and about turns. And some one, two, or three steps and a stop. (Because, with these distractions, Finley sits were a bit late when I stop, the first time or two anyway :doh 
Then we did some backing, which as I've said before she likes, and that seemed to bring her focus back around to working. 

It's interesting as I try to figure out the best way to help her focus while keeping everything fun. I think next time, I'll start off with some fronts and backing before moving onto other exercises and see if that little bit will help her focus.

Planning to work on the jumps with her tomorrow and drops on recall provided it's not pouring .


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Posting here so I don't forget what I need to add to my training routine. Thoughts always pop into my head laying in bed. 

Fetch game with lots of chase and wrestle reward to build drive for bumper.

Start playing dont drop the bumper game indoors, then move outdoors, then add to fetch game. Start simple, then get tricky. Will use treats for this one.

Add hand signals to Fetch Game to increase fun during handling drills.

Do assignment 2 for get focused class.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

It's pouring outside so that puts training in the yard out of the question but we worked articles and Nugget maybe because of a day off yesterday was really up and did both L+ M very nicely leaving briskly working till he found " IT" and returning with believe it or not both straight finishes. We also did signals and recall from down position plus some f+f . It was only a very short training session but a good one and tonight we will go training and work the DR and the jumps in both class 's . Sunday we are going to another trial.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

This morning we worked outside  It was cold, around 34 degrees, but fun and I got out the broad jumps.

*Faelan:* Signals with a concentration on about turns and taking the signals out of order and rewarding pieces. Then a few broad jumps which he did very well. Very nice fronts & finishes!

*Brady:* short 3-6 step straight line heeling with some sits and some in place rewarding. We then did a few recalls with no finishes. His first few BJs were very nice - 1st with me recalling, 2nd with me at the end of the boards. 3rd he touched a board, as he did the 4th so back to recalling over the jumps then I moved back to the side and we ended with a nice clean jump.

*Casey* and I did some heeling, a few signals and a few recalls. I had put the broad jumps away before he came out so that he was not tempted LOL

A quick session with each dog perhaps 5-7 minutes with play time interspersed.


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Today was training class for Gracie. We're in the midst of good manners2. She's the baby in the class and struggles with leave it (using high value treats) and holding a sit or down as the trainer approaches. But today the trainer set up a simple rally course and we were the first to go. I was so proud of Gracie, she moved pretty easily through the course, attention was pretty darn good, didn't hesitate or refuse a single command, pretty much nailed her finish. Went wide on the about (there were other dogs seated close by) and definitely wiggled on the sit stay walk around but all in all I was delighted with how she did. Best of all the trainer commented on how happily she was wagging her tail as she did the course. We're at the stage where today was good but next week (we're sampling agility) may well be a disaster. But it was nice to have a good one.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqKqFGEzcH0#t=74

Put another way, this is why fundamentals (how they are taught, what is taught, attitude towards them, etc) matter.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Fundamentals: Always & forever 

About turn and right turn foundations from tonight before I read Megora's post - the camera angle gives a startling perspective LOL


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Had a pretty good session tonight improvement on fronts still along way from perfect but better. All jumps taken on first order - beautiful go outs tonight (3) only one baited . The DR was done for each glove and he got all three on the first order never tried to over achieve and got each on the correct line I gave him . This alone made my evening. Heeling was good but fig8 he lagged on first turn. Recalls were good and he almost got the fronts straight the one with the drop was really nice. ROF done well each time . S+D solid and MSFE HAD GOOD LOCKUP BUT HE MOVED DURING EXAM so we repeated and it was better as I stood him I turned right in front of him and steadied him during exam. Very positive training this evening as the BJ and DR are really coming along 


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Sunrise said:


> Fundamentals: Always & forever
> 
> About turn and right turn foundations from tonight before I read Megora's post - the camera angle gives a startling perspective LOL


Love the wagging tails! I was doing the same thing on our deck earlier today since I was told to work on my about turns. I think I'm going to look for a used camcorder. My camera records, but finding someone to hold it while we're training isn't always easy. I can see where having a video helps. (Not to mention I hope Finley's tails wagging too! )

We had a good day today. Stayed in the backyard, but that's a good thing because Finley gets to chase after that ball without being incumbered by a leash.

Jumps were very good! No issues on the retrieve over high jump. She sat and held the dumbbell and finished quickly and correctly. No jumping up after I take the dumbbell. (We'll try this again tomorrow as I was expecting that problem to fix.) I changed the setting of the jumps around in the yard (which I do occasionally). I decided to try the bar and high jump parallel to each other so I could see how she's really doing on the signals for which jump to jump. I haven't taught her a formal "Go Out", so we heel to a spot a distance from the jumps and midway between them. I signal and then give the command. First time was perfect each way. Second time, I signaled for the bar on the left and she went to go over the high on the right. We worked through it, and ended the exercise on correct jumps. So not bad for the first time in that set-up. We also did some down from a distance with the signal, and drops from a recall which was very good. Not perfect, but I'm happy and she had fun . Heeling periodically throughout.

Tomorrow, we'll do a few jumps, and then a short walk in our development for heeling, recalls, ect outside of our yard. I don't think I'll have time to work with them on an outing tomorrow. Probably Sunday for that.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I usually use a tripod although last night I just set it on the matting. Kind of brings new meaning to the term fuzz butts! I love it when a friend records me, but usually train alone.

Amazon has some reasonably priced camcorders.



MaureenM said:


> Love the wagging tails! I was doing the same thing on our deck earlier today since I was told to work on my about turns. I think I'm going to look for a used camcorder. My camera records, but finding someone to hold it while we're training isn't always easy. I can see where having a video helps. (Not to mention I hope Finley's tails wagging too! )
> 
> .


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

This weekend its time to make moves. The boys need to be introduced to birds. I've been somewhat terrified of this step because I'm afraid I'll screw it up. But if I keep holding off then we won't be able to progress forward either..so here goes nothing. I jumped in head first today! 

I started with Bernie because I knew he'd be easier . He has a soft mouth and is very gentle. No problems with him. He was very excited about the bird. No feather pulling. No trying to eat the bird. He was a little intimidated at first, since the pheasant was so large and heavy. He was nervous to put the whole thing in his mouth. But after me wiggling it around a bit and him warming up to it a bit he was picking it up no problem. 

Here he is, all proud of himself:








Now Oliver on the other hand...It went exactly as I feared. He tried to eat it. There wasn't any feather pulling so that was good. I kept telling him gentle and that kept him from pulling at it. It also kept him from biting its head off, which he had attempted to do once before last fall. I thought if he took the whole thing in his mouth and carried it around we'd be okay. Well...he took the whole thing in his mouth and BIT DOWN. crunch. :no:. So I took it away. I'll try again tomorrow with a frozen bird that hopefully he can't crunch through. I don't know how to get him to learn that these birds aren't food. I'm sure they smell and taste like his dinner. This one did seem kinda leaky. Maybe it was too much too soon.


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Bernie looks like he's trying so hard to please you. Now do you keep those things in your freezer with your ice cubes and frozen food??:yuck: I knew there was a reason I wasn't too keen to try hunt and field. I admit to being squeamish about dead wildlife.


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

TheZ's said:


> Bernie looks like he's trying so hard to please you. Now do you keep those things in your freezer with your ice cubes and frozen food??:yuck: I knew there was a reason I wasn't too keen to try hunt and field. I admit to being squeamish about dead wildlife.


Lol yeah he was, he was so excited it was really hard for him to sit for the picture. Im so proud of his progress. Dog school teacher thinks hes ready to play wuth the big boys now. And no we have an extra freezer that we keep the boys food in so we keep the pheasants there

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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Other than gas jumping up .21 cents a gal. Overnight I had a great morning with Nugget. Early this morning we did articles which he left briskly worked the pile and successfully got both L+M. After SD we did a couple treat toss's then a glove in the#2 position twice that he got on first order and returned with a straight front ( it does happen occasionally). We did signals which were pretty good, and then two baited go outs. After returning from an errand I took him out to the street and set my fig8 coffee cans up and did two sets which as far as I could tell were perfect then some heeling which also was very very nice. After this in my back yard the BJ done twice poor fronts on both . HJ done twice one good front. Three straight recalls all very fast but no fronts that were straight then a couple ROF which were nice with two good fronts. Nugget sat straight on the finishes 95% of the time today and because it is only 33degrees out he was really up and wanted to work which I was very pleased with him as he is trying hard to please me. We only worked a total of about 1/2 hour but it was a very very productive time. Hopefully his good work attitude carries over to tomorrow's trial.


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Broke out the birds again. This time Oliver got a frozen bird. I also used his breakfast to train the fetch and hold. This worked much better. Progress! 

Bernie is getting more comfortable with the bird now, a little too comfortable. Started pulling at feathers a little so he got some formal retrieve training with the bird. He was quick to pick up that the bird gets thrown again if he picks it up nice and it disappears if he tries to play with it. Hopefully by the end of this weekend things will be cleaned up, at least with Bern. Olivers going to need more than just one weekend.

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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I hemmed & hawed and then zigged & zagged. Do I go to class where I do not feel comfortable holding up the class if I am not 100% happy but get exposure or work around town building that 'butt in and no wrapping' heeling I am working on with Brady. It would be a rally class.

I brought him on errands and worked him some - very short (2-4 steps) heeling with about turns and the amount of people stopping and wanting to examine him (oops, pet him) was awesome.

I may still bring Faelan to his Utility class but am trying to find some rope to set up a ring in my side yard too; this would be a roped ring that I can set ring gates up in when wanted (I take them down to help keep them nice) but could also just run outside and do ring setups and such. I found the stanchions but can't find the rope so I may be heading to Home Depot rather than the class.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Good Luck at the trial 




Nuggetsdad said:


> Other than gas jumping up .21 cents a gal. Overnight I had a great morning with Nugget. Early this morning we did articles which he left briskly worked the pile and successfully got both L+M. After SD we did a couple treat toss's then a glove in the#2 position twice that he got on first order and returned with a straight front ( it does happen occasionally). We did signals which were pretty good, and then two baited go outs. After returning from an errand I took him out to the street and set my fig8 coffee cans up and did two sets which as far as I could tell were perfect then some heeling which also was very very nice. After this in my back yard the BJ done twice poor fronts on both . HJ done twice one good front. Three straight recalls all very fast but no fronts that were straight then a couple ROF which were nice with two good fronts. Nugget sat straight on the finishes 95% of the time today and because it is only 33degrees out he was really up and wanted to work which I was very pleased with him as he is trying hard to please me. We only worked a total of about 1/2 hour but it was a very very productive time. Hopefully his good work attitude carries over to tomorrow's trial.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com App[/color


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Nuggetsdad said:


> Other than gas jumping up .21 cents a gal. Overnight I had a great morning with Nugget. Early this morning we did articles which he left briskly worked the pile and successfully got both L+M. After SD we did a couple treat toss's then a glove in the#2 position twice that he got on first order and returned with a straight front ( it does happen occasionally). We did signals which were pretty good, and then two baited go outs. After returning from an errand I took him out to the street and set my fig8 coffee cans up and did two sets which as far as I could tell were perfect then some heeling which also was very very nice. After this in my back yard the BJ done twice poor fronts on both . HJ done twice one good front. Three straight recalls all very fast but no fronts that were straight then a couple ROF which were nice with two good fronts. Nugget sat straight on the finishes 95% of the time today and because it is only 33degrees out he was really up and wanted to work which I was very pleased with him as he is trying hard to please me. We only worked a total of about 1/2 hour but it was a very very productive time. Hopefully his good work attitude carries over to tomorrow's trial.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com App[/color




Good luck tomorrow!


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Nuggetsdad said:


> Other than gas jumping up .21 cents a gal. Overnight I had a great morning with Nugget. Early this morning we did articles which he left briskly worked the pile and successfully got both L+M. After SD we did a couple treat toss's then a glove in the#2 position twice that he got on first order and returned with a straight front ( it does happen occasionally). We did signals which were pretty good, and then two baited go outs. After returning from an errand I took him out to the street and set my fig8 coffee cans up and did two sets which as far as I could tell were perfect then some heeling which also was very very nice. After this in my back yard the BJ done twice poor fronts on both . HJ done twice one good front. Three straight recalls all very fast but no fronts that were straight then a couple ROF which were nice with two good fronts. Nugget sat straight on the finishes 95% of the time today and because it is only 33degrees out he was really up and wanted to work which I was very pleased with him as he is trying hard to please me. We only worked a total of about 1/2 hour but it was a very very productive time. Hopefully his good work attitude carries over to tomorrow's trial.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com App[/color




Best of luck tomorrow!


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

We had a successful day today. Started off this morning with taking Banshee to the obedience/socialization class I had signed her up for. Her first time in a class setting in almost a year. It's a small group, only 8 other dogs, but she was much more at ease then she was when we took her to basic obedience last year. One of the things they did was heeling in and out of cones, and also around individual dogs who were in a down stay. She did excellent. Some of the people did this off leash, I'm not going to try that with her yet. But, it would be good for Finley. The new situation, new dogs, and the opportunity to heel off leash in a controlled environment with those new distractions. The class is offered on Sat and Tuesday's. I'm thinking it will be a good way to alternate dogs so they each have a class once a week. Although this is not competition obedience, all the things would be useful for the CD. And I've learned enough with Finley's class to know correct positioning ect without needing that kind of help from the Saturday instructor. The instructor knows my goal is competition, so she doesn't have a problem with me expecting and working toward correct position, on a recall for instance.

After we got home Finley and I spent time on the street and in the back yard. Heeling was good, off leash in the front of the house as well. I noticed she's watching my shoulder movements and adjusting her position accordingly on her own. A slight movement of my left shoulder backward had her taking left turns very nicely. When doing quarter and half turns to the right and left it worked also. 

Her jumps and retrieves ect were also good. No issues again today with jumping up after I take the dumbbell. Tomorrow Finley and I will head again to a different pet store and pick-up some low calorie treats and do some distraction work.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I did go to Utility class with Faelan and he was, well, awesome. 

Heeling perfect. Signals perfect. Moving Stand for exam - close to perfect; he did twitch left front foot when the instructor got to his tail. Go Outs - very very nice. Directed jumping - perfect. Scent articles perfect. Gloves - a little off on his pivot. The instructor made a comment about him being much improved - LOL - last time I went he was in one of those 'nope, never heard that before' stages. I rarely finished him but the 1st article he finished slightly crooked. He did slightly forge while transitioning from the fast to the normal the 2nd time. So overall a very, very nice session.

I then headed to the backyard with the idea of doing some agility but it is windy enough that the teeter is moving up & down all by itself so I decided it probably wouldn't be a great idea to work teeters or jumps with bars that come down easily of fall over etc.


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Haven't been posting much because I seem to spend all my waking hours not at work lugging OB and hunt training equipment around.

Last night, a very small group of us set up OB equipment in the outfield at the city playfields. I attempted a Utility run-through with Alder the poodle boy, but the sounds of kids, shrieking of trains nearby, and one of the trainers repeatedly saying NO! to her dog left Alder totally discombobulated. He is a timid soul. Good thing for him that most OB trials around here don't often have kids around, or very many adults for that matter. It didn't bode well for the three OB weekends in a row that start next weekend. I gave up on any hope of training and left him tied to the fence until the people thinned out, then played with him.

Maple has none of Alder's sensitivity to noise or children. (She suffers from an over-abundance of enthusiasm around all humans of any size.) Her run-through in Open was great. If she will jump on mats (our nemeis), we have an excellent shot at wrapping up her Open title next weekend.

Today was New Toy Day. Maple is giving her new dinosaur stuffie a good shaking:


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

We had a rental today at Dave's the Soda place - both rings for an hour.

I brought Casey, Faelan & Brady and Casey took the opportunity to scoot out of a very small opening while I was closing Brady's crate and had me chasing him down an aisle where a very nice lady stopped when he licked her hand <sigh> luckily she is a dog person since she had a dog in her cart. Ever the escape artist when it comes to rings. It was kind of fun though to see him charging through the store determined to get to the woman.

First with each dog in turn we worked exiting the crate with attention, doing a few tricks like spins and throughs and a few steps of heeling once they were fully keyed in to me. In and out perhaps 3 times apiece.

Next up we worked broad jumps (not Casey). Brady did very well, Faelan did not - he kept ticked the first or last board so we worked some on that.

Next up we worked Go Outs for Faelan with Directed jumping which he did great at - we went against 3 sides of the ring for variety. The Brady got to work with Directed Jumping only; baby steps. Casey did Go Outs with Directed Jumping but the bars were set to 10 inches for him - he loved it 

I then worked the tire with Brady - he doesn't get it unless I am right next to it so I need to go back to some notes for him. With Faelan we worked lead outs and around the clock with the tire and he rocked it! 

Then my hour was up - I usually reserve 2 hours but this time I was using both rings so only reserved 1 hour ; I should reserve 2 hours regardless since I still had a bunch I could have worked on, but the work we did was very good, very upbeat and other than chasing Casey through the store, very productive ....


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

I wish Nugget was as up as he was yesterday but he did qualify with a 195 in open b . I was hoping for a 197 or better but knew it wasn't going to happen today but I did get hit for a bump which I didn't feel and a slow return after he got the dumbell on the ROF which I didn't think was slow enough to be hit for but you pay for the judges opinion and we were talking after the trial and I mentioned the bump and 2 1/2 pts off on the heeling and fig 8 and she said well this IS OPEN B . I'm still happy with Nugget as he still isn't 2 years old yet and F+F are a on going battle with most exhibitors. I watched the whole show and there were several open b dogs that the scores weren't as high as I thought they would get. 24 dogs entered -3 absent - 10 qualified -11 non qualifying . It was fun today and hopefully we clean a pt. or two off at next weeks show.

PS the one exercise that no deductions were on was the BJ you guys know the one he NQ 4 trials on. I think that one is fixed YEA


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Congratulations Nuggetsdad  A 195 with a flawless broad jump is HUGE!

And your post reminds me of why I do not strive for an OTCh - ever LOL No matter how well my King did, there were better dogs and/or handlers; in my area a 198.5 will often not be in the ribbons but oh how I wanted my wonderful King to collect the blues. The B classes can be brutal!! but congrats again - Nugget & you did great !!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

> Sharon I'm not looking for an OTCH if Nugget gets one someday great but as long as our team does a good job I'm happy. As far as the high scores in your area it's the same here , with my old dog I've gotten 199 and only wound up in third place and a bunch of 198s that didn't even get a sniff of a ribbon but as long as it's still fun I'll keep training and showing but I definatly got to work on the fronts a bunch more if he is ever going to be even a little bit competitive. With my old dog it used to give me a chuckle when I would hear people I knew say hear comes that old man again with that **** golden.


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Congratulations Nuggetsdad and Nugget!!! 

Hearing you guys talk about advanced obedience competitions, scoring, and ribbons and how competitive it is makes my head spin! yikes!


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Guess time to put my thoughts ahead as far as this week goes...  

Last week we got our first blue ribbon in conformation. And our first experience in the "winners" class (that was pretty crazy getting sorted out LOL). His brother won that class and got his first major.  

And we've taken it easy this weekend with lots of playtime outside. 

This week we have class on Monday and Wednesday. 

My goals are pretty much stalking people and asking them to do exams with Bertie. Just make it old hat and something I don't have to worry about when we do our next conformation show later this month.

Other than that - I did a little training at Friday's show and was happy enough with the little guy's attention, that he's going to do his first rally show next month. I want to see how he does there before entering him in beginner novice.  

If I do rally at that show (Grand Rapids) will probably bring Jacks and enter him in Excellent (he's titled through Advanced).


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Congrats to you and Nugget. Does Nugget have nicknames? I was just thinking that if my dog was named Nugget I would always be calling him Little Chicken McNugget


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Congrats on the good Open B run! 24 entries is a big class. Out here in the Inland Northwest of eastern Washington, an entry that large is very rare.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Our current focus is on learning a sit stay. The method I used for every single dog, my own and fosters, was not working with Phoenix, so I finally reminded myself to fit the method to the dog, not the dog to the method, and we made immediate progress!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

> Jodi Nugget doesn't have a nick name but Little Chicken Mc Nugget is pretty cute.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

> coaraujo Don't get intimidated enjoy the journey with your dogs and if you work hard at training making it fun for both of you eventually you'll get to a competitive level if that's what you want but when it's all said and done you still take the best dog in the trial home.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Yay !! Woods are dry enough & free of snow so we took a little hike (Casey, Faelan, Brady & I).

So we had recalls 

Then once we got back into the yard we had some impromptu agility:

*Faelan & Brady:* teeter with 2o2o contacts
*Faelan:* Weaves
*Casey, Faelan & Brady: *Dog Walk with stopped contacts - Casey was a volunteer on this one LOL he did fine
*Faelan & Brady:* A Frame with 2o2o contacts
and we ended with 
*Faelan & Brady:* Sending to the table with an auto sit - okay, Brady is still learning the auto sit part LOL

Fun!! I will need to set up a few jumps so we can do some handling and/or lead out practicing


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

After getting back home and the forecast rain hadn't come yet I thought why not do a little training so out to the yard we went. I threw the dumbell 3 times which he waited till told to " take it " which he did and then I tried helping with the fronts because all of them would have been crooked without help. We then put our target " coffee can" with treat on top and did go outs the first was way to the left about 8-10 ft.and I don't think he knew his treat was on top the can so we shortened up the go outs to maybe 8-10 ft.and did several which after the first baited one he didn't get a treat till after the go out was straight and on target. We then went back all the way at least 30-35 ft. And did a few which he did well after the first one which he decided when to turn and sit which just earned him a couple more to do and these he did on the order of sit and they were straight and far enough. It was then time for the DR which the first one #2 was the correct one to get but Nugget did not take the line I gave him and then went to #1 which of course has rocks in it then he ran to #3 and finally to #2 getting it but no reward for a good job. We then successfully did each glove twice with no mistakes meaning his turns in place were decent with straight sits taking the line leaving and successfully retrieving the correct glove and returning it to me with all crooked sits in front but he did release the glove each time on my " out" order then I threw the glove a few times which is another of his rewards but when he comes back for me to throw it again he won't release it till he gets his COOKIE he does know the difference between working and playing on this exercise so it's ok with me especially with all the trouble getting him to this stage. This evening training at club and because a few other members showed there yesterday I'm sure a discussion of of the jobs done by our dogs good or bad.


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Did one more session with the birds before I put them back in the freezer for the week. I can now throw the bird like a bumper for Bernie. So we started working on steadiness. I think we'll be making quick progress now. He still kind of picks up the bird slow. I think that's just because he's not used to it? He'll go at it form one angle and it'll flop weird so he'll go around and try another angle... So I'm thinking some drills where I just have him quickly pick it up and put it in my hand where fast pick ups are rewarded and slow ones are ignored is needed. But overall this weekend was a big success for him. He had so much fun out there . Two ear infections and everything, he doesn't care - just wants his birdies!

Oliver is moving along very nicely. Hasnt tried to eat the frozen bird yet. I was able to do a few retrieves where the bird was planted and even a couple where I threw the bird. His pick up was quick and delivered right to hand, no chomping or feather pulling. Not sure what he would do with a soft bird though. He's much more excited about birds than bumpers so hopefully if we can get it through his head that birds are friends not food  we'll have a hunting dog on our hands. I have some wings in the freezer too, I should get those out and put them on the bumpers so the boys get used to feathers and no feather pulling.


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## Vhuynh2 (Feb 13, 2012)

coaraujo said:


> He still kind of picks up the bird slow. I think that's just because he's not used to it? He'll go at it form one angle and it'll flop weird so he'll go around and try another angle... So I'm thinking some drills where I just have him quickly pick it up and put it in my hand where fast pick ups are rewarded and slow ones are ignored is needed.



When Molly first started she used to roll the bird around and pick it up by the belly. It was something she just grew out of.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

*Monday Classes*

I picked up rally class after Monday obedience. Thought it'd be worth it to see how Bertie would handle a rally course. And the answer is.... basically we would definitely Q. We just glided through... and his advanced run was actually better than his novice run. Everyone liked his broad jump - because of course he has those springs on his feet and pops straight up and over.  

Regular obedience class though - :headbang2

Jacks did both jumps - EASILY. Broad jump was done without a target. High jump he is grabbing the dumbbell and driving back over the jump. My good baby boy. :smooch:

We had somebody else teaching class tonight and she started class with set ups. Bertie HAS A QUALIFIED SET UP!!!!!! While she was working with everyone else I switched dogs and did a lot of heel-free practice with Jacks, including putting him through pace changes between other people and dogs for distraction. Heeling with Bertie - not the pretties thing. He's great for heeling patterns on the spot... long heeling with group is hard for him. He gets bored and starts tuning out. Which is hard for me because I'm used to total focus Jacks.

Did figure 8's with Jacks -

Regular SFE with Bertie (had the big guy in class do the exam and Bertie did NOT pee!  and moving stand with Jacks (Jacks is anticipating my call to heel, so we are backing up to the moving stand and utility exam... and then I'm returning to heel majority of the time). 

Bertie did his jumps very well - I'm trying to make sure he knows OVER means taking the jump whether he sees me toss a treat or not, so I'm stalling that treat until he's in the air, and he's handling that. 

Bertie had anticipation on his fronts - and entertained the replacement teacher (long time OTCH golden trainer) with his leaping high in the air and pouncing on the dumbbell for ROF.... we reviewed fixing that, and got a good pick up before I juggled dogs and did a retrieve with Jacks. 

I then did a DOR with Jacks - which he did awesome.... and skipped ahead to doing one with Bertie. 

Before class did directed jumping (just one jump out there because I was too lazy/shy about pulling a second jump out that close to class time)... and his go-outs and directed jumps were better than twirly butt Jacks. I told Jacks he has to keep up with his baby brother.... 

And then we did stays - both dogs were solid. Finished Bertie's novice stays and took him out of the way while Jacks got some OOS time on his remaining stay. 

And that was it. 

Phew. Long night.

ETA - I did meet GRF member Elizabeth (Penny's Mom) and her little Darcy, and he is SCRUMPTIOUS. He's 5 months old and still has all his puppy fluff! I was telling Elizabeth that when Bertie was that age he was all naked. He's going to be a beautiful big-headed boy when he grows up.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Long group heeling is hard for me LOL - I get bored, my dog gets bored and I end up doing something else. I found a class (drop in) that does very little group heeling - just warming up for obedience and individual exercise drills for rally depending on the class - and then individual style heeling and patterns. Boredom relieved  Plenty of downtime or playtime between working sets



Megora said:


> We had somebody else teaching class tonight and she started class with set ups. Bertie HAS A QUALIFIED SET UP!!!!!! While she was working with everyone else I switched dogs and did a lot of heel-free practice with Jacks, including putting him through pace changes between other people and dogs for distraction. Heeling with Bertie - not the pretties thing. He's great for heeling patterns on the spot... long heeling with group is hard for him. He gets bored and starts tuning out. Which is hard for me because I'm used to total focus Jacks.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Last night training just so so, I started with articles as I wanted distractions . Our turn to face the pile good and he was to get the leather article which he eventually did . When sent he ran to pile and IMMEADIATLY found the correct one and started back to me and about 1/2 way he must have thought he was wrong but anyway he dropped it and went back to the pile searched around went back to the correct one picked it up and brought it to me. I didnt do anything while he worked and this was good as he continued working this was high lite of training. We did the DR which he again did albeit crooked fronts. Heeling was sloppy he must have pooped out cause he just wasn't into it. Did a very nice DOR and I helped the front and the same for three ROF.This was second training session of day although for most part we worked different things I think he was just tired or maybe didn't feel good so we left early without doing any jumps or go- outs. 


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

The crew had this morning off - it was pouring and I wanted to submit a video of a disappointing session with Brady from Sunday. So I spent the normal training time editing the video and submitting for feed back. I spent last night deciding if I wanted to submit such a terrible training video and in the end decided that's what I take classes for and while I hope it never happens again, hope is not a good choice for dog training!

He learned (hopefully - there's that word again) that you no focus - you no play. Too bad so sad.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

>. Sharon I totally agree with you no focus or as I like to call it good work ethic - you no play too bad- so sad

I to had another not very impressive training session today. He failed to go over the BJ the first time he was told over so he got to do it several more times to try to instill it in him that he MUST. 
Only one or two fronts on all the things done today that required a front got a straight one.
On the gloves the first one sent to get he hesitated and had to be told a second time to " take it"
Articles too he did the same thing as last night going out getting the right one coming in to me dropping it going back to the pile scenting each of them and finally going back to the correct one picking it up and bringing it in to me with his usual crooked front. This exercise both leather and metal were each done a second time. I was told that this was not a picture of perfection and would be a substantial 3-5 point loss on the exercise plus whatever else was was not done correctly like his lousy front. 
The go- outs today (4) were all nice with good sits on order and he did take both jumps as he he was supposed to. 
Heeling was better than last night but still not what I know he is capable of. Today wasn't as dismal a training session as some that we have had but it sure wasn't as good as others either. 


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Nuggetsdad said:


> I wish Nugget was as up as he was yesterday but he did qualify with a 195 in open b . I was hoping for a 197 or better but knew it wasn't going to happen today but I did get hit for a bump which I didn't feel and a slow return after he got the dumbell on the ROF which I didn't think was slow enough to be hit for but you pay for the judges opinion and we were talking after the trial and I mentioned the bump and 2 1/2 pts off on the heeling and fig 8 and she said well this IS OPEN B . I'm still happy with Nugget as he still isn't 2 years old yet and F+F are a on going battle with most exhibitors. I watched the whole show and there were several open b dogs that the scores weren't as high as I thought they would get. 24 dogs entered -3 absent - 10 qualified -11 non qualifying . It was fun today and hopefully we clean a pt. or two off at next weeks show.
> 
> PS the one exercise that no deductions were on was the BJ you guys know the one he NQ 4 trials on. I think that one is fixed YEA
> 
> ...




Congratulations to you and Nugget!!


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Our sit stay training has gone well enough for us to have a photo session during sit stays


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Our trip to the pet store Sunday turned out to be a trip to the state park where we met up with my daughter to walk some trails. Finley lost her mind when she saw her, and had a hard time getting back to basics even after saying a big hello. After we were done walking Finley and I went over to the basket ball court and did short bouts of heeling and recalls. She did ok, but very distracted so the session was short and she got a lot of praise for paying attention to me. 

Monday is our usual class night. I was back and forth all day as to whether I was going or not. It was one of those days where I was really tired and couldn't see driving an hour home at 10:30 at night. If it had been closer I would have went. Anyhow, we did do heeling, recalls, and stays thrown in here and there on a walk through our development. 

Yesterday I had to run in to work to grab some paperwork. (I work part time at a nursing home, which is pet friendly.) So Finley came along for the ride. We did a practice novice run through for some of my nurse friends. She did it, off leash, but again her focus was not on me. She can and will go through the motions, but she's doing a lot of looking over her shoulders, slow on the finishes, ect. This was after we were there about a half hour. 

On a positive note, a year ago I would have had her training collar on, and would never have taken her off leash in the nursing home. Or in our development or in front of our house for that matter. So slow but sure we making progress .


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

I sometimes think I push Nugget to hard by training 5-6 times a week even though I try to keep it short and have breaks and play time in between so today he has the day off completely and tomorrow even though we will keep it short I'll try to work mostly on open exercises with the exception of the DR which I'm going to bring some high value treats again to get him to charge out for on the FIRST TAKE IT . I must find out if yesterday's not to great going backward on a couple things was him not feeling good or just a poor work ethic and feeling lazy. In my earlier post I forgot to mention that he also went down on the 3 minute sit something he hasn't done in a very very long time so I had him do a 5 minute sit stay while the other dogs laid down this was a success. 



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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Last night and this morning were all about sit stays and reviewing homework assignments.

Last night Brady got to practice sit stays on my bed with Faelan & Casey loose in the room with all 3 dogs getting pieces of meatball pizza – Brady did very well at understanding treats come to dogs who sit – still & focused.

This morning I recorded our 1st sit stay with all 3 boys about halfway through our hike – the ground was muddy and I was moving around while the dogs were in a semi-circle at the top of the trail; there was some activity down the trail that had the dogs mildly curious – perhaps an animal or a neighbor out and about? Brady remained focused on me while Casey & Faelan would occasionally glance down the trail. A 2nd video was recorded with just Brady doing a sit stay on the top of dog walk – something he has never, ever done before – dog walks are for running across. Casey & Faelan were in the house. I went in a rewarded him a few times just so he knew he was making good choices.

Overall, Brady is casually alert and focused on me during his sit stays. He needs more exposure to my disappearing and going out of sight, more wobbly or unusual surfaces, mechanical toys etc but overall he is making good progress. 

His stand stays are not so casually focused but we are getting there – now I need to start working on my returns to heel position with him.

Casey & Faelan thought the stays were mildly amusing I think. While we don’t practice stays that often other than rentals and classes, they are in the rotation perhaps a couple times a month. I may start having Brady do line ups with dogs I either do not know or do not completely trust; to date all line ups have been with known and trusted dogs – not so much dogs that will never break but with dogs who will not intimidate or harass him if they do break, or that won’t scuffle with him if he breaks. Or he may continue to just do line-ups with trusted dogs for awhile yet J I am unsure there can ever be too much trust in believing stays are not a stress point and that my dogs are safe in a line-up.


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Since I'm still really just trying to build desire we've been sticking to doing marks. I was watching some Bill Hillman videos and it was very educational. It looks like we'll be able to still learn alot while building desire with marking. Before I was just throwing bumpers aimlessly without purpose, but now we are doing Y drills so that Oliver can learn that different angles mean that the bumper falls different ways. I also have started rubber banding wings to the bumpers so that he's getting used to the feel of the bird in his mouth. After our bird crunching incident I want him used to holding bird-like objects softly. He's much more enthusiastic about retrieving these . He did spectacuar. Hillman also emphasizes throwing fun bumpers so I tried to do that with Oliver. At first Oliver looked at me kind of confused, like what are you doing just throwing the bumper over there mom? And then he realized I was being playful and ran off to get it and bring it back. I think I stress and overthink things too much.

Very excited for this weekend, two field training sessions sat and sun with two different groups. Should be really good for the boys!


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

The Cone Zone with Stacy Peardot-Goudy started today at Agility-U  

So Faelan & I just practiced our first session and will be heading off to agility class soon. I will wait to practice the Cone game with Brady or Casey until I get feedback but man oh man; Faelan is loving it!! Race around a cone to get a tug toy - he's all over that LOL of course cone games are not entirely novel to my crew since we have done Heeling Games which also uses objects to fly around.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Phoenix did a short track with two 90 degree turns this afternoon. Then tonight he had his first retrieve lesson (I posted video in the hunt and field section). He's such a good boy!

I think I'll work sits with Flip later tonight.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

*Wednesday Class...*

I guess to put it briefly, both boys made boo-boos on their down stays (Bertie got up and skulked towards and was solid the rest of the time, Jacks popped up twice... apparently his way of letting me know he didn't want me going out of sight today)..... <- and the rest of the classes for both guys were rock solid and made me happy. 

Bertie - 

We had pretty loose heeling practice and even called heeling patterns for each other. Now I DID put the leash behind my back to keep Bertie "close", but was very happy with his efforts while heeling. There was one spot especially where I did my normal drop to slow pace and did my slow-planting each foot movement and was gratified to see him looking up and paying attention while he moved step by step with me. I was starting to worry about whether we'd get there.  His fast was kinda out of control with him leaping ever step. *whoops*

Figure-8 was short, sweet and beautiful. Leash again behind me.

Recalls - only bad thing was him anticipating the call. 

Stays - Sit was solid, but his down was blemished by him popping up briefly. Put him back and he behaved himself the remaining 10 seconds or so....  

He actually BEHAVED himself in the crate during Jacks' class. Yes, some digging and involuntary barking (he's not a barker so when he barks it burst out of him with dog-sob mixed in). 

And during Jacks' class, I pulled him out to do some broad jumps. We are cooking now.  He is taking the jump on command and he's almost landing before I toss the treat (he tries catching the treat mid-air of course). 

Before his own class too - I pulled out articles and had successful finds and retrieves with both leather and metal - with a full pile + me just rubbing up the article. Smart puppy I haz.  

*Jacks!*

We did a zig zag DOR pattern all around the floor. It basically with 5-6 other dogs out there doing the drops or signals + all kinds of toys plopped around the floor at random.... could have been bedlam. All the dogs were relatively under control. Jacks couldn't resist a santa cap toy, but left all the duck toys and so on alone even when the training path basically has him weaving around toys to get to me. 

Heeling was very good - but we did a heckova lot of it. I think it's the first time in a long time that Jacks been tired out from heeling at the start of class. Either that or maybe I should have watered him before going on to figure 8's (checkerboard figure 8's - basically everyone in class set up with their dogs in a sit stay as one "steward" and themselves as the other. So 1-2 people doing their figure 8's could do any pattern they wanted while working around the people/dog teams. <- Jacks did well-enough, but I had some lagging to start off with, which really doesn't happen with him. 

Jumps were next and yes - he did both his high jump (with a retrieve over it!!!!!) and his broad jump. Was very happy to see him bouncing over and getting excited. I think a lot of the motivational stuff I have been doing is helping him thank the Lord.  

Jacks' articles are always very solid and were quick and easy today. The lady partnering up with me was laughing because he "tasted" each article before finding the one that apparently tasted (?!!) like me. LOL. 

Moving stands - I did these on our own at first while reinforcing the "wait means STOP" hand signal and I also did a couple things to reinforce the stay (tossed gloves past his nose, etc), did it a few times and had him planting his feet on command. Then did them with a partner and was gratified to see him doing a very solid moving SFE. My good boy. 

Gloves - Adele did a disappearing glove thingy to test the dogs. Basically a glove on a retractable leash thingy. She placed the gloves for us, but there was one glove either to the right or left of the glove-to-be-retrieved that would start moving when the dogs were sent to retrieve. Jacks basically ignored her and her moving glove and got the right glove each time. <- Oopsie here is Adele caught me "punctuating" my verbal command with an extra stab at the end of my hand signal. LOL. 

Signals - weren't purty because of Jacks anticipating the series. I'm trying to wait more between signals to encourage him to watch for the signal instead of doing it on his own. Otherwise, he goes down, sits, and comes on his own. 

Then stays were last and... yeah Jack was a little bad on the down. But class was still full of win because he did his jumps and looked happy while he them. :smooch:


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

This morning in my back yard I wanted to see if a day off helped , its still undetermined. We started with the BJ and he took the jump AND gave me a straight f+f YES. Of course I couldn't leave a ,good thing alone so we repeated and yes he did the jump but the front was crooked but the finish was fine when will I learn to leave a successful exercise alone. Next was the DR which again was #2 and again he failed to leave my side and get the glove on the first TAKE IT , we did all three gloves twice with no further failures but it's the first one that counts. Now it was the DJ which the first go- out he cut very short and would have been an NQ . After this I put bait on the target ( coffee can) and we had 4 good straight go- outs and each jump two on each bar and high were all very nice. Again the first go- out would have NQ us. We also did two ROHJ and this too was not pretty the first time as he couldn't get the bar of the dumbell in his mouth with the grass being in his way which almost got him a good forced retrieve refresher course, after that he did the jump two more times without problems albeit with poor fronts on the return. After this we did three recalls all were well done including a beautiful drop on the second one and with my help he managed two of three fronts. Tonight its training at SCKC and group exercises and heeling to be concentrated on and probably the DR again.


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

So I attempted to do some drills with Oliver this morning with his breakfast. It ended up being really sloppy.. like wings flying off of the bumper sloppy. The Y not turning out so Y shaped in the Y drill... but I still think all in all it was a good training session. Clearly the improvement is needed on the trainer's end of the stick, but we all have to start somewhere!

Here is our video





We started with a Y drill. The first throw (towards the camera, was supposed to go up higher, but the wings weren't rubberbanded to the bumper well enough and came flying off :doh. I suppose the bumper was somewhat like a decoy. Good boy for getting the bird! Next throw was good, but he dropped the bumper again on his way in. Last throw was perfect, very happy with that one. 

Then we did some overs and backs. He clearly knows his directions, its just a matter of focus at this point. You can tell he was getting worn out and bored/disengaging. He's really not a fan of these drills, they kill his enthusiasm. These drills are going to be really important once we get to SH/MH levels and we're doing blinds. We don't need them now. I want to find a way to make them more motivating for him. I know our Get Focused class will help him naturally be more focused during these exercises, but I'd like them to be more enjoyable as well. If he LOVED bumpers it wouldn't be so bad because getting the bumper would be rewarding, but he doesn't really care about bumpers. Doing it with wings does seem to help a bit.


Thank you Sunrise!


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

@Couraujo

When you go to Advanced and click the YouTube button you will get the YOUTUBE within brackets inserted 

Place your cursor between the ][ and insert the assigned location of your video "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTS-xzEzjtI" - in this example you would insert the kTS-xzEzjtI portion and should get similar to the following (this does not always work though but usually will)


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Brady has apparently re-injured that dew claw - bummer, I'll have to restrict his activity again.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Sucks about Brady. 

Tonight we reviewed taking and holding a leather article, and then moved on to a metal article. Wonder dog said it's a piece of cake 

Phoenix also decided the Dremel is no longer a torture device and is back to handing over his toes for licks of cheese. Glad that phase is over!


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Today was Gracie's training class. Her "leave it" is not there. I think we have to start over completely. Still very distracted when the trainer approaches, just wants attention. The highlight was her taking a triple jump (6") with enthusiasm. The trainer had to hold her for the start but she charged forward on the recall, took the three jumps with lovely style and managed a pretty good sit front at the end. It's nice to have a bright spot because we have so much that needs work.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Last night things did go better Nuggets heeling very nice I only saw 1 crooked sit and not out by much and his fig.8 the instructor said he bumped me on inside turn although I didn't feel it. His recalls were brisk with good finishs and the drop on the first one pretty nice although I have seen him do it faster. BJ taken on first order with one straight front and one straight but on one side a little but still scoreable both finishes good. ROF good but fronts weren't there nor were they there on the ROHJ but finishes were. S+D like a statue and the MSFE his lockup with only a hand signal great but the signal for recall and finish he went wide and the sit was way way out. The DR done twice on each was acceptable as he left on the first order took the line and did retrieve t,he correct glove with fair turns in place , but I did use treat toss's to get him to go before I even tried the first glove although a vast improvement over even a month or two ago this still needs more work as I don't feel confident with it and it's not solid enough yet but we have plenty of time before I even think of entering a trial in utility b . Nugget still needs more ring experience and maturity he won't be 2 till next week.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Yikes!! I was trying to figure out a few shows and between club websites, infodog & the AKC Events search there is confusion!! Which club on which date offering what? The shows are not until June so there is plenty of time but I like having plans LOL


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Nuggetsdad said:


> Last night things did go better Nuggets heeling very nice I only saw 1 crooked sit and not out by much and his fig.8 the instructor said he bumped me on inside turn although I didn't feel it. His recalls were brisk with good finishs and the drop on the first one pretty nice although I have seen him do it faster. BJ taken on first order with one straight front and one straight but on one side a little but still scoreable both finishes good. ROF good but fronts weren't there nor were they there on the ROHJ but finishes were. S+D like a statue and the MSFE his lockup with only a hand signal great but the signal for recall and finish he went wide and the sit was way way out. The DR done twice on each was acceptable as he left on the first order took the line and did retrieve t,he correct glove with fair turns in place , but I did use treat toss's to get him to go before I even tried the first glove although a vast improvement over even a month or two ago this still needs more work as I don't feel confident with it and it's not solid enough yet but we have plenty of time before I even think of entering a trial in utility b . Nugget still needs more ring experience and maturity he won't be 2 till next week.
> 
> 
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Happy early birthday Nugget! What a lot you two have accomplished in two short years, you two are one hard working talented team.

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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

In honor of Brady’s dewclaw and okay the drizzle outside, we did not hike or do outside fast work of any type this morning.

We did, however, work on pivots (left mostly) and short heeling in the training room inside with the play matted floor. 

The dogs did well – I was also working on positioning Brady’s head back towards my hip a bit to try to straighten out his butt <sigh> Goldfish crackers to the rescue LOL

Perhaps that dewclaw is a blessing in disguise if it forces me to review aspects of precision heeling.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Happy Birthday Nugget


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

We had to wait for the dew to evaporate this morning to work outside on gloves jumps etc. but we did do articles and again he went right to the pile found the correct one which was #6 leather returned halfway to me dropped it went back to the pile searched completely every article there twice then finally went back to the original correct one and brought it to me. It seems as if he's second guessing himself. He was then sent for #6 metal and immediately found and brought it to me. When the yard was dry enough for safe jumping we did the BJ twice which he took on first order and gave a good front on second one both finish's were straight . Then ROF and ROHJ both done well other than a couple of fronts ( you knew that) . Go- out (2) both straight fast and with a quick sit on order with the first one baited. Both the bar and high taken on command and both because I could turn into his return had straight fronts and finish's. Recall (2) from well over 75 ft.very nice. What wasn't so nice was the DR which on the first glove which was #2 I had to tell him take it 3 times and step toward it before he would leave me. We did all the gloves 1-2-3 several times with a couple treat toss's and varied the distance from just a couple feet away working up to approximate distance of 40ft. This exercise will haunt me forever I think and never get rock solid but they all NQ something now and again and like the BJ I will never be real confident at a trial till we get past it.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

a Yesterday was a stunningly beautiful day here in CT. It reached the low 70s and there are very few snow piles remaining. I took my bike out for my first ride of the season and then came home and took Brady with me for some errands. We worked in 3 different locations including local park. We worked attention & games fresh out of the car, short heeling patterns, right turns, recalls, pivots and playing with a toy in a busy park between 2 playgrounds and on a fields with those dirt plugs the town does while aerating in the spring. He did well.

A teenager approached me for help with his 9 week old unsocialised puppy so I put Brady into the Xterra and worked with them for a bit - the pup went from backing away and barking to approaching me and letting me pet him  Even when the ice cream man came around a second time with the children running, the pup felt confident enough to just quietly observe from a standing position. The kid seemed to appreciate my taking the time to sit on the parking lot tossing treats to help his puppy out  It was fun and I gave him some treats to hand to anyone else who could help him start the socialization process - a lab/rottie/great dane mix so chances are his pup will grow to be a big dog who will need to trust people . 

Then I brought Faelan to another park and we worked some cone work, signals, heeling, moving SFE and a go out. I then moved a bit closer to the honking geese and pond and worked more signals & heeling. A few things I noticed on the video were I have been slacking on my front & finish work while combining the pieces ... oops. I'll have to address that.

A very fun day


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## boomers_dawn (Sep 20, 2009)

Sunrise said:


> A teenager approached me for help with his 9 week old unsocialised puppy so I put Brady into the Xterra and worked with them for a bit -


Good deed! So glad he asked and you helped him. Thanks for probably making a huge positive difference for these 2.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Thanks Boomers Dawn 

Here is a video from Faelan's session with the Cone Zone - the purpose of this class is to help a dog understand tight turns and handling maneuvers without the added complexity of keeping bars up and/or stanchions up - interestingly the 'fly' portion is also a heeling game for FDSA to relieve pressure  So Faelan has some experience with the concept but now we are adding the tight wraps and front crosses ... the class will be advancing (of course) but it is truly a fun fun way to work on foundational skills for both me & my dogs. This game is how Brady re-injured that dew claw - he was really digging in to round that cone...


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

We just got back from a week down south so Lexx and I haven't done much training in the last week or so. I did do a short session on Friday to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything while we were away. He didn't!.

Lexx and I attended a carting clinic yesterday. I wasn't sure what he would think of it but he actually did very well. Some of the dogs weren't quite sure what the harness was all about but because Lexx does tracking, he was comfortable with having it on. He was a little leery of the cart at first but within minutes, he was fine having it near him. There are 3 more sessions (June, July, August) with the DD testing being done in September. So we shall see how he does in the next sessions.

I am going to take Lexx to the building today for some training. He has been itching so badly for the past couple of weeks (had to take him to the vet) so I'm sure that will be a big distraction for him. I feel so bad for him. 

Back to agility on Wednesday and then over the next couple of weeks, we start tracking again and will start our field work.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

About to head out for our last tracking class! While I won't miss the six hours of driving every Sunday, I'm a little nervous about getting cut loose to train on our own.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

It is very warm today!! Brady did some round abouts with me and we lucked out with a GSD barking away (and an English Setter in the same car) while hanging out the window so Brady got to practice heeling and short recalls with bunches of distractions.

Faelan & Casey were on a hike with my brother which turned out to be several hours so Faelan will having limited training today 

But, we did work some lead out practice. Brady first and he is just learning so we had a lot of repeats. Faelan did not need to repeat any today, but we have a lot more work to do - 2 jumps were set up about 10 feet apart and the dog was placed in the middle of the bar for the jump to be taken about 10 feet from the jump. I then moved my position from 1-6 and used my directional hand crossing my chest which is less apparent than having the arm out to the side.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Fun day at the Steele City KC trial today no pressure on us . Nugget qualified withe best job to date in Open B

Breakdown
Heelfree & Fig.8 37-1/2
Drop on recall 30
Retrieve on flat 19
Retrieve over high jump 30
BROADJUMP 20
Long sit 30
Long down 30

Total 1961/2 
He also got his first score high enough to get a 3 rd place very happy with him and he did get his usual Mc Donald's 


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Go NuggetsDad & Nugget !! Congratulations


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## timberdoodle (Mar 6, 2013)

Starting to work with Hush on a leash. Getting pretty good at the stand/wait command. I love the attention span she has, she loves to train.


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Congrats to Nugget! Great score. Maple finished her CDX at the Moses Lake trial on Saturday. The score was nothing to write home about (187), but I was pleased (and surprised) that she took the jumps on some thin, slippery mats. I moved her up to Utility and Sunday. On the signals, which is pretty good on in practice, she appeared to be confused. I think she was expecting a DOR exercise. She had many other issues this first time out. We have a lot of work to do, especially on go-outs to different background (other than white ring gates), and on getting better heeling when the treats go away.

Alder was in Utility both days. His pesky problem of returning on the drop signal once again took us out on the very first exercise. That's getting frustrating. I don't know why he does it in the ring and not in practice. 

So, not the greatest weekend, but it had a couple of good points. Now, I need to think about adding a couple sets of articles so I don't have to wash articles in a hotel sink on a Saturday night.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Congratulations on the CDX  
Sounds like a busy weekend


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

>Palouse CONGRATULATIONS on your CDX and don't be unhappy with the score your dog got. I know a bunch of people that I showed with these past two weekends who would have been extremely happy if they had gotten it instead of the NQ that they got including a few who I know have had OTCH dogs.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

This morning Casey, Faelan, Brady and I took our hike 

On our return, it was agility contacts morning.

*Brady:* building drive combined with 2o2o on the teeter, followed by the dog walk; same drive & end contact emphasis.

*Faelan:* weaves with difficult entries, drive and banging the teeter while maintaining a straight 2o2o end behavior regardless of where I am or what I am doing.

*Casey:* teeter banging games


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

This morning everything went very well starting with the articles. I put the metal out first which Nugget did a very nice turn in place with me and when sent did go and sniffed around a little but never stopped working picked the correct one and returned to me and holy smoke gave me a perfectly straight front. We repeated with leather and this too was done well but the front not quite as good. There wasn't any dropping and second guessing himself today just a nice clean exercise. Then it was a couple treat toss's and one glove which he got without any hesitation at all. Signal exercise followed and he did it well but today as a reminder I also said down-sit-come along with the hand signal and his stand was good with only the signal. Then two short go- outs in the house cause it's raining and being so sweet I didn't want Nugget to melt( can you guys tell he is on my good side after yesterday). A few F+F and I called it for the morning workout. This evening it's club and a little work on those slow sits heeling of his and polishing up on a few minor things .


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

> Timberdoodle Your puppy is quite impressive , really shows me you spend a lot of time with the pup . Looks great


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## Titan1 (Jan 19, 2010)

We trialed last weekend and it was alot of ups and downs...Not training consistant sure makes a difference and caught up with me.....lol.. I think we forgot to pack our fronts and finishes..and it helps to remember what dog I have in the ring..lol.
We did however pick up some OTCH points and 3 UDX legs and Titan is now a UDX17...and his 75th High Combined.. Best part of the weekend was watching Titan's boy from his 1st litter beat the old man in scores in OB..Yeah Cross and Jim..


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

timberdoodle said:


> Starting to work with Hush on a leash. Getting pretty good at the stand/wait command. I love the attention span she has, she loves to train.


Absolutely loved this! The wagging tail especially<:

I vaguely wondered how some people teach their dogs to stack in front like that - especially with young dogs. <- I just do a moving stand type thing *hope he got his feet right* and move out in front. 

Congrats - to Michelle, Richard, and Palouse!  

*** I didn't do any training this past week since Wednesday. :uhoh: It's just my brain wasn't focused on dog training with the weather being nice for once (forget the 2 inches of snow we will probably get tonight). 

This week - class tonight. Hopefully the wind dies down or Bertie is going to do all the work in class. Jacks has been rattlebrained the last couple days because of the wind blowing. Doesn't even have to be storming out for him to be flaking out. 

Class on Wednesday will just be conformation drop in. I just haven't decided if we will go "early" or not (back to back drop in classes). If I go early - we can get some obedience practice in before class. But class itself will be very crowded. 

The rest of the week - if the wind dies down and we have dry ground, will set up the high jump in the front yard. Will also be thinking about setting up bar jump and maybe putting a string or some kind of barrier between the jumps while training both guys.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Titan1 said:


> We did however pick up some OTCH points and 3 UDX legs and Titan is now a UDX17...and his 75th High Combined...


Those of you who aren't Facebook friends with either of us, I posted this over the weekend...


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Loisiana said:


> Those of you who aren't Facebook friends with either of us, I posted this over the weekend...


Hahahaha!! Love it.


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## timberdoodle (Mar 6, 2013)

Megora said:


> Absolutely loved this! The wagging tail especially<:
> 
> I vaguely wondered how some people teach their dogs to stack in front like that - especially with young dogs. <- I just do a moving stand type thing *hope he got his feet right* and move out in front.


Oh I have no idea what I'm doing, but she is such a great student! MOST of the time she stacks up on her own and looks pretty good, but I am trying to introduce a "step" command just in case. 
I'm doing a drop-in conformation class with Charlie tonight. Haven't ever been to one, so looking forward to it. He's 8 months old now and looking all grown up. 


I tend to be a little over critical with my dogs. I keep getting told to get Charlie in the conformation ring. I guess I'll never know how he'll do unless I just do it. So I am going to start persuing that and I'm thinking I'll do a UKC show or 2 to get my feet wet so to speak. I've never shown or entered a class. I've heard AKC isn't as laid back and UKC is a good place to learn.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

@Timberdoodle -

He looks beautiful - and I think you would be surprised to see him with the ears and neck cleaned out. He should clean up really nice. 

Since he's only 8 months old... you might want to enter him in the (AKC) puppy classes while you can. It's good experience for them... and you too. After my first experience in the show ring when Bertie was about 16 months old, I came away wishing I'd entered Bertie in more puppy classes. 

After you "age out" and still aren't completely confident jumping into Open classes, then you can use the Amateur Owner Handler class to gain experience.

*** I'm planning on entering Bertie in the show over in Corunna. I have no idea whether we will be indoors or outside. If outside, it will be the first outdoor show I've done in ages. Should be fun....


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## timberdoodle (Mar 6, 2013)

Funny you mentioned cleaning up the ears and neck. After I took these pictures I trimmed up his ears really good and ran the coat king a few times around his neck, but I didn't want to over do it. I don't know if those things can damage the coat or not. I'm sure you can over-use it if you're not careful.


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## Lucky Penny (Nov 13, 2011)

Luna and I picked up leg #2 towards our CD this past weekend! Everything except for the healing looked really nice! I am struggling with the healing during a show. I may be to nervous and stressed for her! Everywhere we go to practice, even run throughs she does so well. So tonight during run throughs I am going to try and play in the ring with her. Make it more fun, instead of stressful!


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Yay!! Congratulations on the CD leg #2  





Lucky Penny said:


> Luna and I picked up leg #2 towards our CD this past weekend! Everything except for the healing looked really nice! I am struggling with the healing during a show. I may be to nervous and stressed for her! Everywhere we go to practice, even run throughs she does so well. So tonight during run throughs I am going to try and play in the ring with her. Make it more fun, instead of stressful!


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Wow what a weekend for everyone! Congratulations Nuggetsdad, Titan, Palouse, and Lucky Penny!

Timberdoodle - Hush is absolutely adorable, it looks like you two are going to do big things 

We had a jam-packed training weekend since the weather was finally beautiful. It was also a rollercoaster of success and failures. I was really hoping to get the boys into some tests this year WC and JH, well after this weekend June 21/22 will probably be Bernie's first first JH test WOOOHOOO! But as for Oliver...We'll see if he's ready for the WC by his birthday in September . Will post more details later after dinner.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

*Monday Class*

Bertie -

- Has a decent go-out and can even handle that connected to the high jump. Bar jump is a different story. I think that comes down to him not precisely knowing what "bar" means. 

- Heeling (with the leash behind me) was actually pretty nice. I'm finding he reminds me so much like Danny when it comes to needed a tighter leash to keep him in heel position. Danny was always in so much a hurry.  Same thing with figure 8. He's getting decent at it, but I'm keeping the leash behind me. It hopefully a temporary crutch that I can work him through with more heel work outside during the week. 

- We did an exercise thingy where we did a flat retrieve on the mat next to the high jump, did the high jump retrieve next, and then another flat retrieve to the left of the high jump. <- Bertie was not quite ready for that since we are just "building" the retrieve over the high. He started going around the jump instead of bringing the dumbbell back over it. We got him to do it over a very low jump and moved on, skipping the flat retrieve on the left of the jump. 

- Broad jumps, some anticipating but very nice jumps overall.

- Fronts and drops. Anticipating on the calls, but the fronts were very straight. Drop - minor issue with him assuming we were doing drop drills and dropping on his own after I got the real one. 

- Stand - had the big guy do it with him. And he did a great job (both the guy and Bertie). No peeing or submissive squatting.  

- Stays - were rock solid. 

- Rally - did offleash advanced and offleash excellent runs. Handler errors on a couple things LOL (I ran past a couple signs). His "send to jump" was actually performed like the regular "owner passes by" jump for now. That was more or less on purpose. The ladies said that even though it's clear that he's a little ball of energy out there and just barely staying under control, he looked good out there. The funny thing though is when you are out there and used to finessing from sign to sign, working with a very green dog is tough. 

Jacks -

- We did a lot of heeling before class. I figured it's better than him not getting any heeling practice at all since his brother needs more work than he does. He's a treasure. 

- Go outs. He actually did a very nice couple go-outs and even some directed jumping. Some spinnies in the middle though. 

- Moving stand. Was very happy with his stop and while he shifted his front feet, he held the stay more or less. I think switching it up and doing some novice stands (meaning me putting him in the stand and returning to heel) will help stop a lot of the anticipating that was starting to creep in. Lack of practice didn't help either...

- DOR. He's adorable. 

- The ROF-ROH-ROF exercise worked very well with him. He did his high jump (with cheerleading from me). 

- Broad jumps - VERY HAPPY. He did a few jumps with plenty of confidence and even a nice arc back to front without having a treat thrown or placed a couple times. 

Stays - Did solid stays tonight - with the exception of him turning his body to look at me while I worked with Bertie (I had a couple people between the dogs to split the boys up. I did go back and release and reset him a couple times. But he held his stays very well. My good baby. 

*is exhausted*


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

This weekend was full of field training and was really telling about exactly where each dog is training level wise. It was both extremely exciting and very disheartening at the same time. 

*Saturday:* We had the first field session with our local GRC (SBGRC – we are officially members now!). We trained with the afternoon group which was the beginner/puppy group. 

The first set of dogs to go were bumpers only. Since Oliver is still only on frozen birds I ran him in this group. Good thing – he did not so hot. 
The gun went off and bumper thrown. Oliver raced out to the bumper. I thought he was going to pick it up. So I blew my whistle. He raced back without the bumper! Oops :doh:. So they threw another bumper for him. This time he didn’t even run all the way to the bumper. He veered off and started sniffing. Threw another bumper with some Hey Heys. Nothing. I wiggled the bumper around and tried to get him to chase it. Nothing. We had made so much progress. Doing marks outside, no shorter than the one just thrown. And he did them with enthusiasm and excitement. But no interest at all today.
A really nice woman worked with us off to the side. We got one of Olivers bumpers that he was familiar with and I rubber banded a wing on it. I couldn’t even get him to look at it, let alone Fetch and hold it. We did slowly progress to him holding it for about 5 seconds with lots of praise and treats. He was barely taking treats though. It was a complete engagement and focus issue. He was stressed and maybe in shock? I got about a million pieces of advice so my head is still spinning. But I do think what it comes down to is it was stimulus overload for him. (because of how Sunday’s training went – we’ll get to that later). I brought him to the line to watch the other dogs go when they were doing the birds. He wasn’t even watching. He couldn’t focus on anything. I even waved a duck around his face. He barely even acknowledged it. It was like he was there physically but mentally he was off somewhere else. One woman (Sunrise – Your breeder) said not to get discouraged, that sometimes when you start dogs when they’re not puppies this kind of environment with all the dogs, people, bird, guns, etc is just a lot to take in. That it’s not uncommon.

Bernie did really well last weekend when we introduced him to birds so I wanted him to go with group who were having ducks and pheasants thrown. Now Bernie was just as stressed as Oliver. He was whining and pacing. Which probably didn’t help Oliver’s nerves either. He’s also reactive and there were 12 other dogs there. So we were most nervous about that. But as soon as the birds came out, it was game on. He zoned in. Bernie retrieved 3 ducks and 1 pheasant like a champ. They were probably between 50 ft and 150 ft marks. He raced out there, picked the bird right up - no being finicky. And came trotting back. The recall was slow and not straight so that needs work. But for his first ever real bird retrieves I was so so pleased. He also carried the bird all the way back to heel and sat and delivered to hand. (I had to guide him with the long line, but he never dropped the bird) Good boy! He was so proud of himself. I’m pretty sure he was smiling with the birds in his mouth. SUCCESS!

*Sunday:* We had our first field training session with our dog school teacher outside (with Boomers Dawn and lovely Dee Dee). It was a really really productive session. We only trained with bumpers here, but were doing much longer marks. The singles we did were the longest we would see in JH test. 

We started with Oliver because, well… we weren’t really sure what was going to happen. I think the marks were about 50-60 yards out? Oliver was so unfocused he didn’t even see the bumpers getting thrown. When he finally caught sight he started running but then stopped and looked back at me. So I ran out with him and kept sending him back. As we got closer he ran to the bumpers on his own, but he wouldn’t pick them up. Repeat of Saturday’s training. I was hoping with less dogs and peoples, no guns that it would be better. But once again it seemed like either he just wasn’t meant to be a field dog or he was just overstimulated. Dog school teacher had us put him away, let him rest, and run the other dogs. He had tricks up his sleeve . What we did was take him out to a different field (just plain grassy one) with one other person (Boomers Dawn). We used Oliver’s bumper and put a wing on it. My trainer told me to set up just like I do when I throw bumpers for Oliver at home. If Oliver runs out and picks it up, mark that spot and have Dawn throw the bumper from there. Sure enough Oliver ran out and picked up the bumper so Dawn tried throwing one bumper from that distance. Oliver ran out, picked it up, and ran back on my whistle (blew passed me actually) But YAY! That was it. Put him away while all the other dogs got worked again. Dog school teacher wants to keep him wanting more. Then we brought Oliver out again, but this time dog school teacher and everyone else watched so there were a few more distractions. We went to the same exact spots. Dawn was really good at remembering where we all had set up . Oliver did great! So our teacher had Dawn back-up and he moved over closer to us to be a bit more of a distraction. Oliver did great again! Our teacher had Dawn back up again one more time, maybe 50 ft mark? Oliver did great again! I wiggled the bumper around afterwards and Oliver was snatching for it and trying to get it, very excited. Where did this dog come from? Glimmer of hope?

Bernie did well for his first time out. Honestly I really enjoyed watching him out there. He took off like a shot to each bumper and even though he needed help finding each one (I don’t think he found any on his first try) watching him hunt was pretty amazing. He looked like a really hunting dog. Nose to the ground searching and searching for the bumper. I think that once we improve his steadiness and heel work at the line his marking will improve. Right now we just let him go when the bumpers were thrown (before they landed) so I’m sure that didn’t help in the marking department. We also really haven’t done any drills with Bernie (like the Y drill) where we work on marking. He also experienced his first obstacle. A swampy gathering of water type thing that was in the way of one of his singles. The first time he stopped and got distracted. The second time he stopped, but for a much shorter time. The third time he barely paused! We have a lot of cleaning up to do with Bernie now. Heeling nicely to the line, lining up, steadiness, coming back straight and quickly. But this was a really really successful training day. Our dog school teacher thinks he’ll be ready for his first JH test in June. Go Bernie!

*Today:* I took Oliver to the fields by my college. They just spread manure down. It was super windy, there were a ton of birds out. There were plenty of distractions and this was a field we’d never been to before. I had no idea how this was going to go. I threw 6 marks ranging from about 20 feet to 100 feet. Oliver ran after them all, picked up the bumpers and then we both ran back to the line together and partied. I’m just going to start field hopping. It looks like fields with high cover are our arch nemesis right now.

ETA so apparently my BF said the marks were like 150-200 yards? Dawn help? I have noooo depth perception so idk lol


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

my dogs pretty much had last evening off - well I was trying to figure out an assignment and they got to play as I was bumbling along trying to work out spin me & dog in the direction then halt and sent to the poles while holding a toy etc ; problem is rather than the setup I am used to the setups were more from behind the poles so ... bumbling LOL Oh well, it was fun.

ETA: This mornings' sessions started with my setting up my 6 very inexpensive bathroom door mirrors leaning against the wall in the training room (~6$ each at Home Depot this past weekend) since we are in for 3inches of rain making training outside a no-go.

The first timed session for each dog ( 3 minutes ) focused on fronts with the mirrors verifying their position for me and also kind of having my eyes as they would be in the ring. A few finishes but mostly fronts with food tosses. Brady is really pretty good at fronting, finishing I have to work on getting him closer - he is straight but probably a good 5 inches away from my leg. Faelan - it is obvious I need to work on his fronts but is finishes are pretty good  Casey is pretty good for both fronts & finishes.

The second timed session for each dog was 2 minutes:
*Brady: *concentration was on starting the drop from in front of me - we also did some heeling.
*Faelan: *concentration was on the drop signal from food tosses with a bit of straight line heeling and a few sit signals from a food toss.
*Casey:* Heeling with about turns and just some fun


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Lucky Penny said:


> Luna and I picked up leg #2 towards our CD this past weekend! Everything except for the healing looked really nice! I am struggling with the healing during a show. I may be to nervous and stressed for her! Everywhere we go to practice, even run throughs she does so well. So tonight during run throughs I am going to try and play in the ring with her. Make it more fun, instead of stressful!



Congratulations good job


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## Lucky Penny (Nov 13, 2011)

Run throughs last night went well. Luna was up beat in the ring. I had a pocket full of treats I jackpot her with during the healing. I also worked on entering the ring praising her, healing a few steps, praising her, then leaving the ring. I did that a few times. Awesome job to everyone else this past weekend!

The agility training has started back up again. Right now I am just focusing on some jump work. Wraps, figure eights, pushes, and such!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Last night at club I went brain dead and didn't get much done and what we did wasn't great. The DR again he didn't leave on the first " take it" then did each glove twice without a problem but again it's the first one that counts. DOR was again very nice but fronts still not good. Heeling not bad as was the fig8 with only a couple mistakes. BJ done twice fronts not good on either. ROF was ok and with my help the fronts and finish's straight. The lockup on the MSFE beautiful but again call to finish went wide and the sit crooked. Signal exercise the heeling part because it was done as it must be off leash wasn't satisfactory to me with a forge going wide and a lousy about turn but the stand -down- sit-and recall good all with signals only no verbal help.


This morning almost an exact repeat of last nights mediocre practice with the addition of three out of four poor go-outs but the jumps were done well. To day in addition to all the poor work of last night he added a refusal on the first attempt of the BJ which today because a good part of my patience was already worn away he earned a pretty good correction for himself and then did the jump very nicely 3 times in a row. I really truly would much prefer to give Nugget a bunch of treats and good boy good boy but when he pulls his " I don't feel like it crap with me my patience can run out pretty quick" I can repeat front and finish's till the cows come home or do a million reps of an exercise that I think he just doesn't understand well enough but something like refusing the BJ is not going to be allowed and will earn a correction for not doing it because I know he does know what I want and I know nothing physical is wrong with him. I know I put my dogs in a level akin to being human and with more intelligence than they probably have and I must remind myself every now and again that they are what they are DOGS.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I was working on returns last night with Brady and the following is a video I took to double check the 'no foot movement criteria' on the stand - as you can tell I let the dogs select their stance since I have found they generally square up nicely to maintain their balance as they become more accustomed to the exercise - and my dogs have always tended to reposition their feet if I fuss. I was proud of much in this session and amused to see the amount of leaning Brady can achieve while sticking those feet!!

Brady has come quite a ways from just a few weeks ago and very few training sessions with my returning to him while he is on the stand.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

> Sharon to your credit and Brady looking at the first stand on your video his rear legs looked spread pretty far But he held it then and also the second one good job both knowing your dog and his learning this exercise so quickly and so well.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Thanks - I am fully confident he will square up on his own  His sit squared up beautifully without fussing. He is actually more familiar with the Moving Stand for Exam at this point LOL

I have not found that fussing teaches the squaring up any faster than letting the dog figure it out (I fussed with King & Rowdy and have not for Casey, Faelan, Towhee and now Brady). Just looks awkward while they're learning.



Nuggetsdad said:


> > Sharon to your credit and Brady looking at the first stand on your video his rear legs looked spread pretty far But he held it then and also the second one good job both knowing your dog and his learning this exercise so quickly and so well.
> 
> 
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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Sunrise said:


> I was working on returns last night with Brady and the following is a video I took to double check the 'no foot movement criteria' on the stand - as you can tell I let the dogs select their stance since I have found they generally square up nicely to maintain their balance as they become more accustomed to the exercise - and my dogs have always tended to reposition their feet if I fuss. I was proud of much in this session and amused to see the amount of leaning Brady can achieve while sticking those feet!!
> 
> Brady has come quite a ways from just a few weeks ago and very few training sessions with my returning to him while he is on the stand.


Brady is gorgeous Sharon  and i really enjoyed watching the video, looked like the wheels were spinning. I didn't know Towhee is his mama. Is he really as dark as he is in the video? He was so light as a pup (in his k9data picture!)


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Yep, he is a Ty x Towhee baby  Ty is CH pointed and has his JH and RN; looking at the K9Data pic he is close to the reddish gold body color. 

The room is peach so it does make him look slightly darker; he is a medium gold with a rich lustre and lighter furnishings; he has the type of golden beauty that has people stopping to admire him wherever he goes.




coaraujo said:


> Brady is gorgeous Sharon  and i really enjoyed watching the video, looked like the wheels were spinning. I didn't know Towhee is his mama. Is he really as dark as he is in the video? He was so light as a pup (in his k9data picture!)


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

It's fairly cool outside and I love to train when it's like this. Nugget was pretty " up" and I think he was trying to make up for his not so stellar work yesterday at SCKC . We did all exercises in both open and utility and only did a repetition when I wanted a better front and I'm pleased to say we did not do many

BJ done onetime it couldn't have been better. He took it on the first order of over and gave up a straight f+ f
ROF done twice second one with my help good f+f
ROHJ also done twice
Heeling decent not bad went wide on about turn but was up and happy working


Articles both done correctly leaving very briskly and returning the same way and pretty nice front on the leather the metal was good but front was a little off but I elected to not do the whole exercise over again as I was pleased with his work ethic so far today.

DJ and go- outs-- first go-out with string cheese on the coffee can target couldn't have been better fast straight and as soon as he ate the cheese and was told to sit he turned around and did then on order took the bar jump with my signal . Second go-out which I verbally promised him his treat and sent him was equally as fast straight and with an immeadiate turn and sit when told to do it. The high jump was taken as was the bar on first order and signal. Very pleased quit this exercise on high note.

Now the dreaded DIRECTED RETRIEVE which I made my mind up if he did gloves 1-2-3 one time LEAVING on the first"take it" and getting the correct one without any attempt to over achieve that we would have a party . We partied !!

MSFE done only once--- need I say more?

Signals were done with a fast a slow a halt and an about it wasn't the cleanest heeling he has ever done but not bad and he stood on signal stayed as I walked to the other end and then did it all very nicely drop sit and recall plus a straight f+f. 

Why can't I get this from my guy all the time ? This was the best practice in a while because all elements were done and for the most part done very well making this short time today an absolute pleasure. Nugget threw me a bone today.


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Sunrise said:


> Yep, he is a Ty x Towhee baby  Ty is CH pointed and has his JH and RN; looking at the K9Data pic he is close to the reddish gold body color.
> 
> The room is peach so it does make him look slightly darker; he is a medium gold with a rich lustre and lighter furnishings; he has the type of golden beauty that has people stopping to admire him wherever he goes.


Brady is looking very handsome these days. Very nice work in the video.


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Nuggetsdad - happy to hear Nugget is back on! Days like today wouldnt be as rewarding if they were all like that. The joys if the ups and downs of dog training!

Off to Petco with Oliver again today to work on his confidence. 

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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Today was Phoenix's first time picking up the dumbbell off the floor. He's such a lovebug. Afterwards I did it standing up, then we repeated with a bumper.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Brady is gorgeous! His momma definitely deserves an OD. She knows how to make great babies!


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Loisiana said:


> Today was Phoenix's first time picking up the dumbbell off the floor. He's such a lovebug. Afterwards I did it standing up, then we repeated with a bumper.


Towhee sure does make some smart and cute babies! Loved the video. Its amazing to see how enthusiastic he is. When I first started teaching Oliver fetch he was really submissive and would shut down, wouldn't take the paint roller. Surnise - I think you said Brady was similar (with peeing issues). I was able to clicker train him into an enthusiastic/confident trained Fetch like what Phoenix is doing. I just love watching his excitement in the video. Its amazing how different every dog is.


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## boomers_dawn (Sep 20, 2009)

coaraujo said:


> ETA so apparently my BF said the marks were like 150-200 yards? Dawn help? I have noooo depth perception so idk lol


Ha ha I have no depth perception either! I have no clue :slap:

ETA: I just read my own post, apparently I thought they were 50-100 as well. 
????????????????


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

boomers_dawn said:


> Ha ha I have no depth perception either! I have no clue :slap:
> 
> ETA: I just read my own post, apparently I thought they were 50-100 as well.
> ????????????????


I feel like the first go around you were probably about a football field away from the line when you were throwing, and you were the farthest mark I think. The next time I think Whoever was throwing in the middle was the farthest so maybe that was a little bit longer than a football field? Especially if the thrower angled the throw back. At least dog school teacher knows 

ETA: BF said he was comparing to when he plays golf and thats where he was getting his estimate from.


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Retrieves with dinner:






Purpose was to introduce sending with "Ollie". Before this I had always said Fetch, but we're supposed to send on their name. I want to make sure I get that right now. I'm also trying to focus on telling him good when he's looking at the bumper and sending him then. He's used to looking straight up at me from obedience work.

Something I noticed, and I think I do this alot. I asked him to heel and then adjusted myself :doh:. He's supposed to do that, not me. But otherwise he was a good boy 

We did a few more before this that he did well with too. He stared up at me longer for those, so his focus on the bumper is improving already. He broke at the line once. But I'm not too concerned about that. I think alot was going on for his little brain. Right not I'm just happy he's retrieving with enthusiasm and confidence. I could tell he was a bit confused when he broke, he wasn't breaking because he wasn't listening to me, just breaking because he was confused as to what to do. We just started over and he got it right. Good boy.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Yes, Brady had issues with the whole dumbbell thing ... but once he understood it, he loves it  Clicker training worked with him too. Just like his mama.

Towhee does make wonderful puppies <3



coaraujo said:


> Towhee sure does make some smart and cute babies! Loved the video. Its amazing to see how enthusiastic he is. When I first started teaching Oliver fetch he was really submissive and would shut down, wouldn't take the paint roller. Surnise - I think you said Brady was similar (with peeing issues). I was able to clicker train him into an enthusiastic/confident trained Fetch like what Phoenix is doing. I just love watching his excitement in the video. Its amazing how different every dog is.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Good boy Phoenix  and Jodie too


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Grins, I think an OD is definitely in that girlie's future - since all her puppies are doing so well.



Loisiana said:


> Brady is gorgeous! His momma definitely deserves an OD. She knows how to make great babies!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

I just found out yesterday that three friends of mine have had their dogs go to the bridge this week . One lost her Belgium Terv another her very sweet Rottie and the third my instructor and friend of many years her Golden Retriever. So sad !!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Don't know what has gotten into Nugget , he again gave me a very good session of training at SCKC tonight including a very nice and correct DR. ON ALL THREE GLOVES . For some reason his fronts tonight were really quite nice not all perfectly straight but a definite attempt on his part to give me straight ones and the go-outs were nice with the jumps being taken correctly. The broadjump was taken twice both times on my first " over" but the fronts weren't there . The ROF and ROHJ both done well. His recalls two of which were drops very nice and with good f+f one done verbally and one with a signal both drops fasts. He did the MSFE so well that the instructor asked m e to do it a second time to demo how it should be done a nice ego booster. S+D solid . I sure hope he didn't use up all his good work tonight as we are in a trial on Sun.at Car Dun Al DTC. In Huntley and there is a 30 dog entry in Open B which is pretty good.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I have the day off  So my plan for the day includes:

2x2 weave poles: record Faelan, Brady & Casey & submit for Faelan
Cone Zone fun(Agility tight turns): record Faelan, Brady & Casey: submit for Faelan
Recalls & Components: record Faelan, Brady & Casey: Review & submit for Brady

Rental at Dave's (the noisy place): Exercises which require full ring length: Recalls. Go Outs, Directed Retrieving, Directed Jumping, Ring Entrances, Retrieve on Flat, possible BJ & ROHJ

Followed by Lead Outs to different obstacles, Tire around the clock.

This might take the entire rental: otherwise I will work on wraps, tight turns and Acceleration versus Deceleration cues.


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Congratulations to Nuggetsdad, Palouse, Titan1, and Lucky Penny! 

Lucky Penny, I completely hear you on the healing in the ring!

Class on Monday: Over all I was happy with everything, except the recall. On the first recall, I call for Finley, and she just sits there looking at me...and I know I called loud enough. Just as I was getting ready to go back to her, and I might have made a slight forward movement, she came. Good girl for coming, but because of the delay, we walked back and did it again. This time much better. 
On our second recall, from the other end of the room, I call her, she moves forward, gets a few steps out and her nose drops to the floor. Sniffing all around. All the way back to her I walk, and I don't think she knew I was coming until I got there as the floor was just so interesting 
Not sure if someone had a hole in their pocket, but there was several treats all around the floor which was what did it. Needless to say, it was addressed, and she got to try again. Recall this time was spot on. Positive of it all, we weren't at a trial and I learned to include smelly distractions in recall training .

Tuesday we went to Petsmart. I like going there because they have a very large cement area outside the doors. Plenty of room for training. We did healing, recalls, and stays. I had her do a 4 minute sit-stay and 5 minute down-stay just off to the side of the doors. I keep her on a 30 foot lead for this and recalls. Not taking any chances with the traffic ect. The sit stay: she did well, in that she stayed. A lot of rubber-necking, with an occasional look at me. Reminded me of her stay at the trial. All that looking around doesn't give me confidence that she will stay the whole time. So anytime she looked at me, I walked forward and treated. Trying to encourage "offered focus".

Yesterday we went to a park that has an enclosed basketball court. We ran through the novice exercises, and dumbbell retrieves. Very happy with everything there. Even off-leash heeling! The weather wasn't so hot yesterday, so very minimal distractions since not many people were out and about. Not a place we've trained at many times though. Later in the day at home we did jumps and retrieves. On a flat retrieve, she happily brought the dumbbell but jumped over the bar jump on the way back. Every once in a while she throws this in there....

I found a Show N Go in May and 1 in June that we can actually attend. Very happy about that.


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## Lucky Penny (Nov 13, 2011)

Sunrise, what types of things do you do with ring entrance training? I really want to work on this! 

Phoenix is to cute! It is so fun when they learn something for the first time!  

MaureenM, I train the same type of places. Pet stores are great for winter training!!


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I start with setting up rings with a table and at least 1 chair. I bring these to various places and at first we just walk into the ring and break out in play. Then I might put food, their toy or something on the table - walk into the ring and play if they ignore the distractions. The stuff goes on the chair, then the ground etc.

Then I start walking into the ring with my dog and take off the leash - party.

Leash come off and a few steps of heeling.

Then I introduce people and walking through crowds.

I could go on but I think you get the idea  The actual ring is treated as an exercise and trained so the dogs become comfortable and enjoy walking into that ring.



Lucky Penny said:


> Sunrise, what types of things do you do with ring entrance training? I really want to work on this!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

In preparation of tomorrow's trial Nugget and I just finished a very very productive training session this morning. In my home we did articles which he did flawlessly then out on the street and driveway where his heeling was nice as he was really up probably because it's only 38 degrees out I was very happy with him as his slow sits this morning were non- existent then into the back yard and we did the BJ which was taken on order with one very straight front and the other close finish's were good. We then did a couple brisk recalls that with help from me working the fronts were also nice neither had a drop signal as I don't want any anticipation tomorrow. We then did two ROF and the ROHJ which he waited for my orders and performed the desired task quite well on all four retrieves. I then set out the gloves for the DR with the glove without rocks in it at the #2 position and after a good turn in place which we do practice I sent him for it and he not only went directly to it but picked it up and returned straight to me without any encouragement from me. YES ! We then did the #1 glove followed by the #3 glove . Both were done taking the correct line leaving my side with a single " take it" and not once on any of the three gloves was there any attempt to over achieve and two of three fronts were beautiful. This outcome has been one full year plus of training to get this exercise done correctly and this was the fourth time in a row this week that the job was done which makes this accomplishment so very rewarding to me. After this I baited my target with his favorite treat ( string cheese) and sent him twice which he did do for two very straight go- outs and took each jump as he was directed by my signal only the first go- out was baited and his rewards were then given after completion of his task. I can't say how pleased I am with him all week and he may screw up at the trial tomorrow but I have had a very satisfactory week of training that even an NQ would only be a little disappointing . NUGGET TURNED TWO TODAY!!


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

I took Lexx to the building for some training yesterday as it was kind of nasty outside.

We worked on heeling which started out rough but ended on a good note. He's always much better when I'm encouraging him but of course you can't do that in the ring. It`s a work in progress!!

Also worked on go outs and directed jumping both of which were done well. BJ....no issues (he really likes doing that). Dumbbell on flat and over the jump were done well. Recall....no issues. Signals weren`t done as well as I would have liked or have been done in the past but he did them. He seems to be hesitating after I issue the command especially on the down which is usually his quickest. We ended with a 5 minute down stay with no issues.

His itching is still causing some problems as he will stop in the middle of doing something to scratch. I don't believe it is stress as he does it all the time. Looks like another trip to the vet is imminent.

We had agility last Wednesday (after 2 weeks away from class). We did some gamble work (working at a distance) and Lexx did well. Also worked on our weaving (2 x 2). He is now up to 4 weaves. Next week will move up to 6. He is doing very well with this.

Next Sunday he starts tracking again and on May 8, he has his first official retrieving class.


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

*HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY NUGGET!!!!!!*

Lexx turns 2 in about 3 weeks.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Yay  Faelan just nailed a complicated EXC JWW course for his title  moved up into Masters for tomorrow.


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Congratulations for you and Faelan! and a Very Happy Birthday to Nugget!


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Nuggetsdad said:


> This outcome has been one full year plus of training to get this exercise done correctly and this was the fourth time in a row this week that the job was done which makes this accomplishment so very rewarding to me. After this I baited my target with his favorite treat ( string cheese) and sent him twice which he did do for two very straight go- outs and took each jump as he was directed by my signal only the first go- out was baited and his rewards were then given after completion of his task. I can't say how pleased I am with him all week and he may screw up at the trial tomorrow but I have had a very satisfactory week of training that even an NQ would only be a little disappointing . NUGGET TURNED TWO TODAY!!
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com App[/color




Wishing Nugget a very Happy Birthday!!! Sounds like a wonderful start to his day. Good luck tomorrow, would love to see a picture of him .


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Sunrise said:


> Yay  Faelan just nailed a complicated EXC JWW course for his title  moved up into Masters for tomorrow.


Congratulations to you and Faelan!!! Very happy for you!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Maureen M ---- I have tried several times to upload a picture of Nugget and all I get is " upload failed parser error" I haven't got the foggiest what this means and don't know how to fix the problem sorry.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Here you go - this is the pretty birthday boy<:

Richard - I have rarely gotten the picture upload tool to work on this forum. So I just right click copy/paste instead.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

We have a fun match tomorrow morning (I go to church at midnight tonight so my Sunday morning is free for dog training! LOL). I am thinking about talking my sister into coming with and operating a camera for me. It's been a while since I did this for a fun match so I hope it shows both guys improving in some way.


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

Nugget is a very handsome young man!!!! And your grass is so green.....ours is still brown!

What is Nugget`s pedigree......


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

> Laurie --- Nugget is a Four Seasons bred dog his mom is Four seasons Beauty School Dropout and his sire is Ch. LAURELLS Shut The Duck Up. Both parents have all clearance and the breeder is located in Lynn In. Sabrina Prim is the breeder and she has a web site and her bitch and the stud are listed on K9 data.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Just arrived


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

> Thank you Kate


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Thank you Kate! Nugget is quite the handsome guy! I copy and paste pictures too, much easier


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

A little Phoenix training tonight


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Loisiana said:


> A little Phoenix training tonight


Very nice work from Phoenix. Is it just the lighting or is he getting darker? Wondering what you're using for the rear end work . . . is it just a dog bowl upside down? Did you start with something bigger?


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Yes, he's darkening up, his back is almost the same shade as Flip. 

It is an upside down dog bowl. That's pretty much the biggest thing I ever use.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Looking good  



Loisiana said:


> A little Phoenix training tonight


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Went to a fun match with both boys today. Long day but had some fun - volunteering, running my guys, enjoyed watching people too. 

The Koutskys were there today with all their border collies. I've never seen either by sight other than hearing about them so it was interesting watching them train their dogs. I think Mr. Koutsky is the one that started the X heeling pattern - so you can guess which pattern they set up in the Open ring.  

Jacks - I'm happy enough to say will get his jumps upped just a smiddge in Open. I kept the jumps low today just so he can be successful. And successful he was. My good baby. He did lag and sniff on the heeling pattern - which he never does. I don't know if it was because we did the X pattern which sends you through the middle of the ring where you normally DON'T heel. Maybe lots more smells there. It was very odd because he normally doesn't sniff or lag. He was also there for about 4 hours by that time, so maybe that had an effect.... his stays were solid. He did open stays with me staying in sight but stand out with everyone else (I stood at the corner instead of tucking out of sight behind it). I also put him in for novice stays with Bertie. 

Bertie - holy crud. Heeling was a "miss" today. Some of that just had a lot to do with us not warming up and being prepared to run. I also think I may be pulling the prong out again to get that cleaned up. He was doing a lot of stuff I wasn't thrilled about. He did both a novice and an open run. Other than the high jump where he kinda got weird about taking the jump and we worked him through it - he did everything else about right. I had some handler errors in tossing a floor colored treat for the broad jump and that messed him up there, but otherwise he was a good boy. 

Other "yay" thing is I put Bertie in his crate while running Jacks in Open in the other room. This was a test because it's just warm enough outside that it'd probably be too warm in the car and I wanted to see if he'd handle being crated with me completely out of sight. <- Big deal that he settled down in the crate and just happily (apparently?) watched stuff going on in front of him. Good baby.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Nugget is getting better he scored 197 in Open B today in a Class of 29 dogs. I'm happy because it was an improvement from last week by a 1/2 point! here is the breakdown 


Heel off leash& fig8. 40

Drop on recall. 29

Retrieve on flat 18 1/2 (sniffing )

Retrieve over high jump 291/2

Broad jump. 20

Long sit. 30 

Long down. 30

Total. 197 out of 200






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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

We have a new stay proofing toy.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

No training today other than a few signals with Faelan - we had an agility trial (no Q's - a knocked bar in STD and a wrong course (spin) in JWW) and then we headed up to Camp Sunfire and spent the afternoon chatting and visiting puppies and

:drummer::drummer::drummer: 

picking up Ms Towhee - she is out of season, although she still smells great apparently, so the crew is all home and life is good.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

We have rain moving in so when it was light Nugget and I did a little training outside. Articles were first and he nailed the exercise leaving finding the correct ones and coming up with good fronts. Then the ROF followed by the DOR which his drop wasn't quite as fast as usual but it still was plenty fast enough to not have points taken off. Then the BJ done twice but I didn't like his fronts we didn't do any finish's. Next it was the ROHJ the first pickup of the dumbbell was sloppy and scoreable and his front was equally poor. The second was much better. Next we practiced go-outs and they were all (6-8) pretty nice the worst two of them maybe a 1/2-1 point off depending on the judge and the two that he was sent to take each jump he did nicely with a little help from me his fronts were also good. Finally we did a shortened heeling pattern signal exercise and he did it very very nicely. GOOD BOY


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## Lucky Penny (Nov 13, 2011)

Thank you for the tips, Sunrise. I have run throughs tonight and I will use your tips when going into the ring! I think that is my biggest hurdle. I just need to make the ring fun and showing Luna will be better. The class I train at doesn't ever have a ring set up. CONGRATS TO FAELAN!! WOHOO!!! Did he beat some BCs?

Happy Birthday to Nugget and congrats! What a handsome boy he is!


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

This morning after our hike, we did a few quick things.

Faelan & Towhee did weaves. Very nice (Faelan did his weaves 3 out of 4 times this past weekend – a weak spot of his that we are currently addressing and this past weekend was encouraging).

Then we practiced Drops inside.

*Brady*: the poor boy has no mind. He whimpered and yodeled and barked all night and ended up being crated so we could all get some sleep without mama having to discipline the boy. So this morning his drops resulted first in an absolutely blank stare. Then he slowly SAT and followed with a down – uh no. Then he started folding down but slowly. Not a really productive session although I suppose getting his brain to function while his hormones were raging is an accomplishment of sorts.

*Faelan*: Did very, very well – he apparently knows not receptive to special attentions means not receptive and to stop fussing. He was very happy to be training after a weekend off.

*Towhee*: Nailed her drops each & every time – good girl.

*Casey*: Okay, he is just plain adorable! He not only nailed his drops, but directly after his elbows hit the floor his nose would be waiting at his chest for his Goldfish cracker to be tossed for his nomming pleasure.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Thanks 

No, he didn't beat any border collies LOL shepards, golden, grey hound, labs, all American that looked like a BC 

Good luck at your match



Lucky Penny said:


> Thank you for the tips, Sunrise. I have run throughs tonight and I will use your tips when going into the ring! I think that is my biggest hurdle. I just need to make the ring fun and showing Luna will be better. The class I train at doesn't ever have a ring set up. CONGRATS TO FAELAN!! WOHOO!!! Did he beat some BCs?


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Congratulations to Nugget and Faelan! and Happy Birthday Nugget! 

This weekend was crazy busy with training Friday and Saturday and Easter Festivities mixed in between which was just too much for me because I was slammed with a migraine Sunday night. Too much on the schedule . But it was all so much fun and we had some great training!

Friday we had a private with dog school teacher with both dogs. On Saturday we had group field training with our local club SBGRC. 
*Oliver:*
He did three retrieves with hand thrown bumpers and then decided he'd rather chase butterflies :uhoh:. When using the bumper launcher he literally ran straight out to the bumper, clearly saw the bumper, and ran off into the meadow to frolic. He came in the instant I called him but it was pretty disappointing. He clearly had no interest. Boomers Dawn had a really good point though. These were bumpers from a launcher and they're kind of a weird hard plastic, something he's never seen before so that might have contributed to his disinterest. With him we have to be VERY careful with the variables we change. Only one thing at a time. This is exactly what happened on Saturday with him. We had got him to do two retrieves with HIS DT bumper brought from home at the SBGRC field training. But when I switched to the bumper with the pigeon wings on it to see if that would get him more excited. He sniffed it and walked away and we completely lost him. Changed too many variables. He's like a walking science experiment. He makes my brain hurt :doh:.

*Bernie:*
Bernie did pretty well at the private lesson. He has all the drive and desire he needs, he'd hunt forever...and actually does. A couple of times he was struggling to find the bumper and we had to call him in to try again because he wouldn't give up. His marking needs improvement, but the only reason for that really is because he isn't steady in the least. He doesn't see where anything falls because I'm holding back a bucking bronco at the line. We have ALOT of impulse control training to do. That's our homework. It's starting to click in his head that if he relaxes he gets the bumper. At training on Saturday all he did was jerk forward, he didn't stand and lunge like on Friday so we're already make progress. Heeling needs alot of work as well. Dog school teacher gave us a lot of ideas to work on that. We'll get there. I know its going to take us a bit longer without the use of aversives, but I know we can do it. I can't even count on two hands how many times people told us we need to put a prong on Bernie this past weekend. I smiled and thanked everyone for their advice, because I really do appreciate it, but its just not the way we're going with our training, especially because of Bernie's fear aggression issues. My goal is to get his obedience cleaned up to be ready for the LIGRC WC May 25. Now THAT might be overly ambitious. BF and I switched dogs. I have Bernie up at school and he has Oliver so I'm going to be training heavily with Bernie to see if we can work some magic. It'll be fun no matter what happens. Here's a couple runs from Sat's Training:










He paused on his return on this one, but came as soon as he saw I was going to come get him. I hope what I did was the right thing here.


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Just had a really great training session with Bernie . Kept it short because I know these impulse control sessions are hard on him. This is how it went:

I asked him to heel at our imaginary line. Put him in a sit stay. Walked out 30 yards. Blew the duck call and threw the bumper. Walked back to the line. When his gaze was forward on the bumper I released him. We did this three times successfully!!

He only broke from the line once on the duck call and that was on the first attempt. We reset and he did the rest great! I'm so impressed with him. The second go around he flinched with the duck call and after I threw the bumper. He really wanted to go, but he was self correcting, bum never left the ground. What a good boy, trying so hard. The next times he barely was flinching. I wish I had recorded this session. 

I'm going to try to get another session in today and then hopefully move to a field by my college tomorrow.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

>. Coaraujo Isn't it nice when they cooperate with you and the desired action on their part is given.


Club tonight for a second training session of the day but I will keep it very light no jumps mostly heeling the DR and moving stand with a stranger doing the exam. Nugget likes going to club cause everybody makes a fuss over him and pets him.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

*Monday Class....*

Both dogs did very well in class. Nothing really to report. It was kind of a weird class with the teacher focusing more on the people who are learning beginning stuff and not the people who (like me) are practicing what we already know. I worked on jumps quite a bit with both dogs... and I sensed the RTO people pulling the hair out in protest as one of the new people pulled me aside and asked me to teach her how to teach the broad jump to her dog. Gladly walked her through the steps, but had the "keep in mind I've never titled a dog in Open" thought going through my head as I did. :

Awkward moment BEFORE class as I pulled into the parking lot and spotted a truck + dog + guy I recognized.  Turns out somebody whose dog I reported to animal control after he ran through the Ifencing and bit me in the middle of trying to bite Bertie's neck? They are taking classes the same place I am. LOL. I think I get bravery kudos for rolling my window down and saying Hi Neighbor. 

Rally class afterwards - we did an Excellent course off leash. Bertie did very well. His moving stand (thanks to conformation) is TO DIE for. He also had a patch of course where we were doing the paperclip thingy with the cones whatever that is called where it almost felt like I had Jacks out there. Very smooth heeling with him truly working with me. 

Anyway.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Last night went fast LOL I still have half of my planned worked to do.

Faelan, Towhee, Brady and Casey worked weaves and both Towhee & Brady had issues with understanding the advancement on the weaves (Weave Redo class) so a lot of time was spent here.

Faelan, Towhee, Brady & Casey all played the Go Out Game.

Then Brady and I worked on drops from a standing position.

By that time I was out of light so we came inside, I fed the dogs, started videos processing from a few classes, took the crew back out for random recalls, submitted my videos for review and crashed for the night!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Club last night what we did was done well , all three gloves on the DR done correctly and with good attitude and briskness. His heeling very nice as was fig8 . MSFE exam his lockup was flawless and his return to heel position sittin straight I think the cleanest he has ever done it. His recalls only two were done without dropping him were quick enough but the fronts weren't there. I didn't work him too much as we had earlier trained and I was only going to club mostly for seeing friends.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Taking advantage of the fact that the dogs were fully warmed up from our hike, this morning:

*Faelan then Towhee:* full broad jumps x 2, with a finish for the 2nd one. We then did on the left followed by the right full set of poles with a send (perhaps 30 ft) to the teeter.

*Brady: *We worked the broad jump starting with a recall over, then to the side and then 2 regular broad jumps. Then we worked a few finishes at the broad jump. And moved to the teeter for a few games of toss the treat when he slams the teeter down 

*Casey:* We did a few left and right weaves to the teeter.

All the dogs did a really nice job  I will no longer do the broad jump with Casey and Brady is not ready for the full straight set of weave poles.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Training this morning at SCKC showed a couple weak spots in utility today namely his first go-out went way way to my left . I didn't put any spray cheese out on the stanchion just to see the result and now I know much more practice is necessary . After baiting and working a couple go- outs cross ring they did improve a bunch but I'm afraid I'm not going to find any judges willing to let me bait stanchions. Most of them don't have much of a sense of humor for something like that. We did the MSFE under a well known judge who trains at this facility and under her Nugget did a fabulous lockup but the call too heel was a bit slow coming to me and he didn't swing his butt around enough for a clean finish and she said I would have lost a point. His signal exercise was good but I know he went wide twice but did a good stand -down-sit and recall with a straight F+F. Articles a thumbs up exercise and for the first time I had a friend hold each article all 10 of them by the bar and then it was as if a steward at a trial didn't use the tongs that I supply and also left their scent on them. Nugget searched a little longer never once not working and got the correct one each time?. The DR which used to be a disaster was quite nice today other than the HANDLERS dumb mistake of forgetting where he put the glove to be retrieved and sending Nugget for a rock filled glove which fortunately he went to the position I sent him to and looked at me and on his own went to the #2 position and got the correct glove. His handler can be such a dunce at times. The DOR was done 2x a verbal and a signal both times a beautiful drop and the third recall was a straight recall which he did well ( no anticipation to drop) . Jumps all taken on first order and about half of them a straight front was gotten. Not a super good session but a decent one and most of the learning was on my part today.


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Just got back from training at a field by my school. Took some videos, but they take way too long to upload so here's a picture of our setup.









This was a good next step for Bernie distraction level wise. I was able to walk about 50-70ft blow the duck call and throw the bumper without him breaking. (We had to work up to this, but then we had multiple successes at this level). Then I tried doing a few doubles. His brain was clearly mush so I called it quits and we had a leisurely walk with some random heeling with hot dog jackpots thrown in. 

Something thats frustrating when training Bernie, and was blatantly obvious when watching back the videos from today, he always seems to be off in his own little world. I'm trying to get him to set up and heel and sit at the line and I feel like I need to snap my fingers in front of his face because he's drifted off day dreaming or something. I looked like a fool on the video trying to get his attention and get him to heel and sit. I brought a "time out" crate, because that's usually the correction we use with Bernie. It's just frustrating though. I don't want to have to always be saying "Bernie, do you want a time out?" to get him to do things. He'll heel and sit quickly if I do say that. Maybe I'm going about this wrong. Time to step back and rethink.


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## Gwen_Dandridge (Jul 14, 2012)

Not a perfect day at agility. We're getting back into it after a hiatus for about three weeks. Maddie has taken to running off with the toy when it is thrown for her AND not coming back. She only does this at agility but it is very, very annoying. I have signed her up for a series of "totally reliable recall" classes but that isn't helping right now.

Also today, it seemed like I was getting criticized overly and that was disheartening. 

Our first run wasn't very good, we had to repeat a section a couple of times as she knocked over a couple of jump poles. 

The second run was very nice, I thought. Her weaves were solid, she did quite nicely on going where I directed. I got fussed at (and loudly) for not rewarding enough on that round. Oh well. The nice thing with agility is you keep getting second chances and learning.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

*Brady and his dumbbell pick up*

I videotaped portions of last night's training sessions and this clip shows Brady's dumbbell pickup (slowed to 25% normal speed). I do like his pickup and his speed for going, picking up and returning. I used a non painted DB since it was drizzly and muddy.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

It's quite cool here in Illinois around 40 degrees and I thought why not take advantage of this great weather that Nugget likes so even though I was going to take a day off from working him I got 3 brand new gloves WITHOUT rocks in them and a piece of string cheese and took him out to the yard. He is really "up" today so I showed him the target without any bait and we then went all the way to the other end where I send him for go-outs from set him up for the first and gave him the GO-OUT order and he took off really boogying out and sat on the SIT order when he got all the way to the gates. I then sent him over the bar which I have moved to where the high jump was just so he knows to just take the jump in the direction I'm pointing to. Complete success with beautiful go- out and jump taking the bar.He then was sent for a second go-out and this time the high jump which was also extremely fast and well done correctly . NICE only wish he would do it like this all the time. Then for the very first time after 6-8 weeks of doing the DR with 2 rock filled gloves I thought let's see if he will #1 leave my side as directed, #2 go directly to the correct glove #3 pick it up #4 return it to me WITHOUT over achieving getting the other 2.???? YES YES YES It's over a year of working to get him to do each glove position doing all the steps 1-4 but today it was done no rocks no disappointment no mistakes. We then went to the broadjump did it once and he couldn't have done it better with leaving on order and giving a straight F+F. All of this didnt take but 5-6 minutes of time today to accomplish but I would estimate it was a couple hundred hours to training to get there. 


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Class Monday night was over all pretty good. It consisted of watching, backing, group healing, recalls, and stays. And of course jumps and retrieves with the dumbbell to start. Finley's retrieve and hold with the dumbbell has gotten sloppy, so I will be working on hold it separate from other training. On one of the retrieve's over the high jump she did not jump on the way back. I haven't had that issue at home (recently), although I have seen the sloppy holds. I was making her hold it correctly while I walked around her in the yard, and would not take it from her unless it was held correctly. Hoped the problem would go away, but it was there Monday :doh: so it definitely needs attention. Healing was very nice. The instructor complimented on her attention so I think some of the focus work we've been doing is helping. Tonight we did healing on and off leash, recalls and finishes in the front yard and on our street. Excellent job she did, very focused. She was really up after watching Banshee work first and play with her b-a-l-l. We also did the broad jump in the back yard and a couple drops on recall which she did good at. A little later tonight they can both work on stays in the house together. I tend to forget doing them, although I know I have to keep up with it. Same with the stand for exam. Would hate to lose points at some time because I forgot to work on it. Tomorrow we'll go out somewhere for practice, haven't figured out where yet .


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

*Wednesday Class...*

Just quicky - 

*Bertie* -

- SETUPS <- WE HAZ SETUPS! <- Yes, caps are necessary, because in the past he's decided to stack himself and look blandly up at me like "What?" Dire effects of conformation stuff.  Tonight though we did a series of setups on leash and then off leash - very happy that he now knows what "get in" means! 

- Heeling was terrific. There was probably a stretch where he was starting to get bored, but his "slow pace" is now practically ready for show. This is my little guy who has been completely UNABLE to go slow. Even took the leash off for some heeling practice. 

- Figure 8's - Adele noticed he was pacing. But he was also heeling beautifully so I couldn't complain. 

- SFE - Basically had 3 different people going over him. The one lady I asked him if she could give him a couple extra pats on his butt. <- I meant touch under the tail (to help with conformation exam) but caught myself figuring that some people might not feel comfortable doing that.  He did solid stays without any submissive scrunching. 

- Fronts - good. Lots of "wait" practice since he anticipates quite a lot. 

- Stays - solid. 

- Targets + I realized I have an easy way of practicing directed jumping without the jumping. I had him go out and while he was out there, I set a couple treats down on either side of me and did the directed send. <- I did the same thing with Jacks. 

- Signals + revisited getting him stand up with his front feet on a platform, go down, and sit. This to train him to change positions in place as opposed to moving forward with each change.

- Jumps - I pulled him out at the end of Jacks' class to take advantage of the broad jump and high jump being out and unused. Broad jump was thrill to see a full jump and arc around without a treat toss or target. I went right back to a tossed treat to keep him from anticipating the corner, but was nice to see that arc and front! High jump - he's learning to jump 16" (whoohooo LOL). As soon as he's handling that, will bump it up another couple inches, but as it is - he is sort of getting the idea with the retrieve. 

*Jacks* - 

Had something of a flakeout day. 

Heeling - he was rushing quite a lot. I was able to get him back to stay in rhythm with me, but yeesh. He was hyped up today. 

Figure 8 - we had two people doing the figure 8 at the same time. We were just going opposite directions carefully crossing side2side or dog2dog depending on which way. Jacks had settled down a bit by this time and did some fairly nice heeling through this stretch. 

Stays - Sit stay, he kept trying to go down on. Down stay he held with me going out of sight. 

Articles - were a total fail. :doh: Adele sat in a chair with the articles around her. He couldn't handle that. Even when she moved the chair back and even stood up, he just wasn't trying to sniff for the right articles. I wound up helping him and calling it a day.

She DID catch me doing something that is a no-no, and good to know. #whoops. When turning around, I've been doing both a verbal and hand signal to send him in practice. Apparently the hand has to stay at your side, unless you were dropping the verbal command. 

She also suggested testing him at home and/or building up the difficulty. Setting up the articles around the corner so he has to completely search on his own without any voluntary or involuntary help from me. <- I've got to try this and see if he can do it! 

Jumps - he is absolutely happy doing 12/32 jumps. The higher the jump and less he's able to see OVER the jump, the more stressed he seems to get about taking the jump. Knowing he doesn't really have to jump higher than 12" in pre-open, I'm not going to push him too fast. As soon as I get our jumps back out in the front lawn and ground softens up a bit more, I'll see if I can bump it up 2" at a time with him and get that height back up. 

His broad jumps were beautiful.  

Moving stands - he's stopped on the verbal command.

Signals - added a verbal at the start to remind him what he was doing (he was trying to spazz out). And he seemed fine after that. 

DOR - solid.

Totally forgot to do ROF - but that's normally something he's solid on anyway. 

Basically that's it. 

There were a couple times when he tried running off to visit the girls in the class. My guys are NOT allowed to visit + Jacks has never tried before. 

That and the fact that when we went outside to potty after class, both dogs zeroed in on a spot and were licking the side of the building and teeth chattering. <- I'm going to guess that one of the dogs was secretly in heat or there had been a dog in a prior class there who was in heat. LOL. Jacks has never been too interested in girls before. Wonder if it is the influence of his baby brother.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Took Phoenix tracking tonight, did a track with three turns. Came home and worked on retrieving, fronts, and heeling. Then did toe nails. He has the shortest toe nails I've ever had on a dog


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

This morning Nugget did the articles very nicely and correctly, his turns in place were perfect and after the retrieve the front on the metal was perfect and his leather very close to being straight . We then practiced f+ f and turns in place especially for the #3 glove which we go to the left on and he has to back around. He is about 50/50 on his turning to the left but improving. Tonight class heeling and we will work open exercises plus I will try the DR without rocks in two of them. On Thur. You only get 5 min. In the utility ring so you can't get a bunch done in it. If not too many people want to use the ring maybe a couple go-outs.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

I tentatively have another person I'm going to take some private classes from - at least to teach better SOLID jumps to Bertie. I reached out to her after the fun match on Sunday - especially having a friend talking in my ear about him rushing the jump. My friend suggested going to an agility person. I waffled and it came down to me wanting to take privates from an obedience person - especially since the problem I saw with Bertie was linked to the retrieve. 

I was panicking about over-committing my week days (especially since my Saturdays this summer are all dog shows) until I remembered that my Monday classes finish up in about 4 weeks and they'll be on break until fall. That all said, I haven't taken private lessons in ages so no clue what to expect. A little nervous. Shouldn't really be since I've been watching this person and her goldens for years + she's given me a lot of help through fun matches etc (she really likes Jacks)....


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Last night Faelan & Towhee & I went to an awesome agility class – not awesome because we did well but awesome because fast Faelaney & Towhee came out to play in a crowded environment and I had to really work at handling them and learned my cue to come to hand are not as strong as they should be.

This morning each dog had 2 minute timed sessions after our hik working fronts, finishes and setup with a mirror.

*Faelan *had very nice fronts and was kind of disappointed I upped my criteria for finishes I think J Setups were very nice.

*Towhee* had okay fronts which we worked a bit, and very nice finishes and setups.

*Brady* had beautiful fronts, very nice set ups (using lure) but his finishes need work since he sits butt out to look at my face.

*Casey* has excellent fronts, very good finishes – I did not work set ups but heeling instead with Casey to limit the sits a bit.


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

I think Lexx is going through his terrible 2s and he's not 2 for a few weeks yet!!!

I did some training with him the other day at the building. Heeling was so-so. I can just not get him to watch me without having a party. Even food isn't working anymore. Figure 8s were okay but had to have a party!! Recalls, SFE and stays were good.

We did some go-outs and directed jumping. Tried the go-outs with no bait and he goes out part way and then turns around and sits. His jumping is awesome and I simply use hand signals. His ROHJ was non existent. He would jump over but then decide to ignore the dumbbell and sniff instead. His signal exercises were well done.

Last night was agility. We should have just stayed home. He had been at daycare all day and clearly was not into it. He did a couple of sequences with the tire, jumps and tunnel but was lagging and wanted to eat horse poop instead. The weaves, which he usually enjoys and has been doing so well at...well, it was like "what are these and what do you want me to do with them"!! 

Like Megora, I am seriously thinking of hiring a private trainer to work with us in obedience for a few sessions. I know the problem isn't Lexx, it's me. Although I have trained him myself for all levels of obedience, I am struggling with his focus and motiviation and it's causing me some frustration.

Sunday it's back to tracking......this is something he gets up for so I'm looking forward to that!!


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

hee hee hee. Okay, I don't know whether to be joyful or not.

As many of you might know, I had to work really, really hard on Brady's retrieve. To the point of dropping him from young dog field training the instant the eCollar was mentioned as the way to 'teach him' that he was not only to mark and run to the bumper, but he was to pick it up and return with it!!! 

I really worked a long time in micro steps teaching my Brady to retrieve and retrieve well.

Well, I just received my input on a training video that showed much more than the video I posted here and the instructor said he has a beautiful retrieve, with drive & speed out, picking up and returning!! 

Then she wrote " *he's a natural* " hee hee hee well no, not quite

But he surely has come a long, long, long way on his retrieves

Please note this is NOT a dig at conventional trainers so just don't even go there if you're feeling the need ..


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Way to go Brady!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Laurie. Don't get frustrated with such a young dog , if you've been reading the posts you would know I have spent OVER a year to get my guy to do the directed retrieve and it's only very recently that he is doing it and it took several different things to fix all the problems I had with this exercise.Try making your training as much fun for him as possible keep the sessions short but often and when you get a successful exercise or the part of one your working on PARTY - REWARD you'll get thru to him and be successful and help him like on the ROHJ as he jumps tell him to take or fetch or whatever your order is run up to the jump tap on it and encourage your dog to grab the dumbbell and come back over for his reward. Try it , when your start having a little success it will make training more fun for you and you will automatically make it more fun for your dog when he sees your happy he will try to please even more.


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

Nuggetsdad said:


> Laurie. Don't get frustrated with such a young dog , if you've been reading the posts you would know I have spent OVER a year to get my guy to do the directed retrieve and it's only very recently that he is doing it and it took several different things to fix all the problems I had with this exercise.Try making your training as much fun for him as possible keep the sessions short but often and when you get a successful exercise or the part of one your working on PARTY - REWARD you'll get thru to him and be successful and help him like on the ROHJ as he jumps tell him to take or fetch or whatever your order is run up to the jump tap on it and encourage your dog to grab the dumbbell and come back over for his reward. Try it , when your start having a little success it will make training more fun for you and you will automatically make it more fun for your dog when he sees your happy he will try to please even more.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com App[/color




Thanks for the encouragement!!! There are days when Lexx can do no wrong and other days he just seems bored. On the ROHJ, he will do it 5 times out of 10 correctly. The other times, I have to go with him, tell him to pick up the dumbbell and run back with him. I try to make it fun and exciting but apparently poop and sniffing are more fun. If anyone was watching me through the window during some of our training sessions, they would think I've lost my marbles. 

I think I get more frustrated with myself than I do with Lexx. I know he has all the potential to be a great performance dog but do I have the potential to be a great trainer? That I'm not so sure about. I'm pretty sure if I put him in a more experienced person's hands, he would be a totally different dog.


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Laurie said:


> I think I get more frustrated with myself than I do with Lexx. I know he has all the potential to be a great performance dog but do I have the potential to be a great trainer? That I'm not so sure about. I'm pretty sure if I put him in a more experienced person's hands, he would be a totally different dog.


I feel like this a lot too. Ive made sooo many mistakes in my training and still do. They come back and bite me all the time. I feel like I hold my boys back sometimes. But when it comes down to it, even if theyd be getting more TITLES with someone else theyre having more FUN training with me. And thats what counts. My boys live to train with me. Regardless of how successful it actually is, its fun and bonding. Im sure that's how Lexx feels 


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

coaraujo said:


> I feel like this a lot too. Ive made sooo many mistakes in my training and still do. They come back and bite me all the time. I feel like I hold my boys back sometimes. But when it comes down to it, even if theyd be getting more TITLES with someone else theyre having more FUN training with me. And thats what counts. My boys live to train with me. Regardless of how successful it actually is, its fun and bonding. Im sure that's how Lexx feels
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


I know I'm holding Lexx back and it kind of upsets me. Don't get me wrong, I love working with him and I know it doesn't sound like it at times, but we do have alot of fun as well. We are very bonded; he's a momma's boy. 

I'm kind of glad my other 2 boys are happy being our companions and not working. It's rather stressful!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Laurie. Don't get down on yourself no one has all the answers and every dog is different . Perseverance is sometimes tough to achieve when you feel frustrated take a couple days off from formal training it just might give you a different perspective .


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

something my agility teacher said yesterday has me thinking and tonight I will be thinking more on it and trying to incorporate it into my training routines. I know this for heeling and have done it for various agility moves but confess that I have become complacent.

*Practice in your mind & your body and don't stop practicing when you can win, but when you cannot fail.*

Just me & my air dogs will be trying a few things together. My instructor mentioned when she is having difficulty visualizing a move, she will practice and practice and practice in her mind and with her body before trying it with her dog. Last night is was back side of jumps followed by taking off to our next position using a 'trailing hand' to cue our dogs - and the arm should be fully stretched back..

Kind of like practicing obedience footwork in hallways at work or the front cross in a field ... food for thought for me


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Training at SCKC went pretty good. I got a little extra time in the utility ring and the DR was great all 3 gloves done correctly good turns in place no attempts to over achieve.. I think he's got it. Go outs and jumps done well other than first go out that he went well to my left good for at least 2 points off. Signal exercise went well but again he went wide twice on the off leash part of heeling and a left turn got a forge but the stand drop sit recall all very good. MSFE was done well the first time but the second one done with a friend of mine who is a AKC judge his lockup was great but the call to heel was slow and the sit crooked . He did same thing last week so I must work on this. Jumps tonight ROF done well and we did the recall 3x all had straight fronts and finish's . The recalls broadjump and the DR all the things that have been trouble doing or cleaning up all came together tonight. Everything certainly wasnt 100% but I'm very pleased with the improvements and actual qualifying exercises we did. He is coming along .


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Laurie said:


> I know I'm holding Lexx back and it kind of upsets me.


 Laurie.... I think we all have that feeling time and time again. 

I started to type a whole long schpeel about stuff like dogs who attended puppy class with Jacks already having OTCH's in front of their names in the length of time it took me to put a CD on him. ! Whatever my excuses about never really having an "Easy button" dog to train, I know my training skills are not exactly the most HONED despite attending lots and lots of classes and absorbing lessons and inspiration from the really good trainers and teams around me. 

And basically that schpeel (that I initially typed) made me all depressed.  

SO scrap that! 

The fact is that dog training is fun and generally speaking whether you realize it or not, you are well ahead of a lot of people who are true "novice A" trainers. A lot of people credit the dogs, but the owners/handlers have to do all the work in teaching foundation and really building up their dog's repertoire of skills for obedience competition.

Focus is a reason why I'm very reluctant to let go of the group classes I currently attend. They're not the best for learning individual problem solving thingies - which is why I'm picking up a weekly private lesson even though it kills me driving an hour for a late evening class (kills me enough that I'm planning on dropping one of my other class days at least for the summer months). But they are the best for getting the dogs used to ignoring other people and dogs. 

The other thing too is that if Lexx is really not understanding that he's working while you are training jumps outside, then you may need to move the jumps indoors and really drill jumps in a "we are working, you must focus" way. 

I haven't tried outside jumps with Bertie just yet, but I totally anticipate him flipping out like you describe Lexx doing. A lot of that comes down to me not really "working" with him out in our front lawn. Not really. His work space has always been our driveway and then I take his training collar off and "release" him into the yard after work his done and I'm letting him go off and be a dog. 

The way I fixed that with Jacks was really keeping training sessions on the lawn very short and exact. Getting one jump out there and taking his training collar off and releasing him. And building working focus time after that.


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

Kate....I know you're right and I should be proud of what Lexx and I have accomplished in our training considering I've never taken a dog past basic obedience and I am, although I know it doesn't sound like it. 

I'm hoping to be able to hook up with some other people in our club to do some training (on the side) now that classes are pretty much over with until September. I think this will really help both Lexx and I. We need experienced help!!!

In any event, we will keep plugging along. Now with spring here, some of our focus will switch from obedience and agility (agility being a whole different rant) to tracking and field training. I think this will be a nice switch for Lexx.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

For all of us who sometimes get discouraged, I once heard (Diane Bauman) that a successful person's definition of failure is giving up.

I know there are times when I hold these words close


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## Lucky Penny (Nov 13, 2011)

Gwen, Luna has not returned with the toy as well in agility either. What I have done and it has helped so much is always have treats and a clicker on me. After the toy is thrown and she gets it and I cheer I call her back and walk backwards and when she comes to me I click and give her a treat and grab the toy. If she doesn’t come to me I ignore her and do something else without her. Or work another dog. This has helped a lot, maybe it would work with Maddie?


Sunrise, I love what your trainer told you. Mine has told me the same. She said she would lie in bed at night visualizing what she was going to do the next day. It is hard sometimes to stop and visualize, but it makes training so much easier. 


Luna and I had a fun training session in agility last night. She loves the weave polls and will run through them on her own! They are still at a channel, which is fine because we are still working on entries. I put them even closer together last night to the point that when she runs through them they are touching her now. The first time same ran through them she barked she was so excited! What fun we had! We also worked on some jump work. I really need to work on my body language in agility, boy can I mess her up!


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## Gwen_Dandridge (Jul 14, 2012)

Lucky Penny said:


> Gwen, Luna has not returned with the toy as well in agility either. What I have done and it has helped so much is always have treats and a clicker on me. After the toy is thrown and she gets it and I cheer I call her back and walk backwards and when she comes to me I click and give her a treat and grab the toy. If she doesn’t come to me I ignore her and do something else without her. Or work another dog. This has helped a lot, maybe it would work with Maddie?


I can try. 

I am signed up for the Total Recall class starting in May. She ran again last night. I tried not using a toy as that makes it worse and it was a little bit better, not much. 

I can't ignore her once she is out running as people will be annoyed at me for taking up class time (which is reasonable). I'm going to also try a couple of private lessons hoping to nip this.

Last night at Somis, we were mixed in how well we did. Agility was okay though she did run. I had trouble getting in position for a front cross and that was frustrating. 

Later I worked by myself on touches on the A-frame. She is solid on the teeter and the dog walk but the A-frame is so steep she didn't have the skills to stop well. She was much better after we practiced just that.

Her weaves are pretty good also.

Obedience went pretty well. Her down stays remain SO solid. Julie released another dog to run wild during the five minute down stay as a proof and Maddie didn't move. Only two dogs didn't break. 

We also worked on the down with comes. She aced that. Perfect every time. 
She still needs work on the dumb bells but I think it will be an easy process for her.


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## Lucky Penny (Nov 13, 2011)

I can understand how if may be hard to work on it during class. Private lessons would be a good place to work on it. I am serious about taking another dog and start working him/her. I did that with Luna a few times with a fast motivated dog and she got really jealous and worked for me. It is best to go get her and tie her up first before you work the other dog. Keep the processes going until you see the results you want. Maggie needs to learn that your time together is precious and you are not going to play her games. 
How is she with working at home? Does she play this game there? Also, have you tried at your class going off on the side and just tossing the toy and having her come back with treats? That helps me. 



I am happy to read that she did well with some of the obstacles during class! Hopefully the recall class will help too. You have to remember that she is a young girl too! Everything is fun!


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## Gwen_Dandridge (Jul 14, 2012)

Lucky Penny said:


> I can understand how if may be hard to work on it during class. Private lessons would be a good place to work on it. I am serious about taking another dog and start working him/her. I did that with Luna a few times with a fast motivated dog and she got really jealous and worked for me. It is best to go get her and tie her up first before you work the other dog. Keep the processes going until you see the results you want. Maddie needs to learn that your time together is precious and you are not going to play her games.
> How is she with working at home? Does she play this game there? Also, have you tried at your class going off on the side and just tossing the toy and having her come back with treats? That helps me.
> 
> I am happy to read that she did well with some of the obstacles during class! Hopefully the recall class will help too. You have to remember that she is a young girl too! Everything is fun!


She only started this behavior after going to agility for a while. She saw other dogs doing it. (I know-if only she hadn't started running with those bad kids, my dog was led astray. ) The only other place she does it is in our driveway when she plays with a stick or pinecone. Though she is better there lately.

Out and about she is amazing. At the reservoir when she is roaming, a simple "Come" will have her tearing back to us. At UCSB "Come" is immediate. When on a down stay, she is fixed and will not move. I leave her in the bookstore and wander around. She never moves no matter what happens. I go up to the cashregister and call her and she comes from the next room immediately. It is a toy/excitement/bratty behavior of some sort.

I haven't gone to the side and played with her toy yet. That's a great idea.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Nugget and I just finished a short training session in the yard. We didn't do any jumps because the grass is wet from dew and I didn't want to wait as it's cool and a Nugget works best in cool temps. We started with the recalls which he gave 2of 3 straight fronts and 2 finish's that were also straight and 2 were all we did. Next 3 ROF which he worked hard to get the fronts and he did on 2 of them even though I purposely threw 2 off to the side one left and one to the right. He has to work harder to get the one when he comes to me on my left side. Then the DR which I'm no longer dreading as even today no rock filled gloves were used and I sent him for the #2 glove first our toughest one which he left my side on the first " take it" got it and returned with a good front . Sometimes he has a little trouble making a clean pickup but not on this glove today. Then #1 and finally#3 each done well. No finishes on any of the DR were done but after getting #3 I threw the glove several times as a reward as he loves this and when he brings it back to me a lg. piece of string cheese is waiting. After this go- outs the first a reminder one from about8-9 ft from the coffee can ( bait target holder) then 4 very pretty fast straight go- outs in a row which after each was done and he sat on my order I walked to him and praised and rewarded him. Next was a MSFE which the lockup was great and after going over him I walked back a distance and showed him the cheese and signaled and verbally ordered him to "swing" which he did with enthusiasm and got it straight coming back to me was quickly done not something he always does. We finished training with the signal exercise which even in the wet grass we both heeled well together and the first one he stood on signal for a second or two and then must have gotten confused ( probably my fault) and then sat so we repeated a short heel and I added a verbal stand and walked away from him which he locked in the stand went down sat and recalled on hand signals all very nicely. I'm really enjoying working him on these cool days when he is so " up" and he knows all of the utility exercises. I'm still thinking holding off from entering him in any shows till fall but my instructor will give me a run thru or two and then we will see.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

So what to do on a rainy Saturday morning while waiting for house member to wake up so I can turn on the built in vacuum? Why torture, oops proof, your dog on scent articles of course!!

Here is a video of Faelan staying on task with his scent articles with Chuckles rolling & playing - his over excitement shows with some mouthing on the leather articles (and excited panting) which will be taken out of the chain to be worked on since the principal portion of the exercise (scent discrimination) was pretty good in the presence of distractions


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## rhondas (Sep 10, 2010)

I have never posted in this part of the forum and decided it was about time.

I see folks are agonizing if they are good trainers, if their dogs are good enough and wanted to post the link for a posting from a Connie Cleveland Blog called the "The Best is the Enemy of Good" - The Best is the Enemy of Good | Dog Trainers Workshop
Everyone should read it in it's entirety but, in particular the last paragraph :

* I do not remember life without competition, and I have been competing with dogs for decades. I have had some great dogs, and I have accomplished some wonderful goals. I have also accomplished some amazing things with dogs that were not great, but they were good. Good enough to train, to travel with, to compete with, to have fun with, to take me places I would have otherwise not gone. They were responsible for great friendships and great times. My hearty thanks to all the good dogs that I have had the pleasure of sharing the ring with, and to all the good dogs in my future.

*


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

> Sharon really liked your video and your distraction tool ( chuckles) was great . Faelan is a very good boy doing his job with that noise and movement so close to him?


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Thanks  I can only use things like that a few times a year or the surprise/distraction factor wear off but used occasionally and then turning Chuckles off and letting Faelan prance about with his prize catch are not only fun but I think they help him understand what earns him rewards 

.. and show me elements that need more work LOL




Nuggetsdad said:


> > Sharon really liked your video and your distraction tool ( chuckles) was great . Faelan is a very good boy doing his job with that noise and movement so close to him&#55357;&#56832;
> 
> 
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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Pulled out my old crate games DVD and started it with Phoenix last night.


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

I took Lexx to the building (it's raining again) a little while ago for a short training session. He's been on the go all day since he got up so wasn't sure what to expect from him. 

He was amazing! We worked on go outs and directed jumping; heeling; figure 8s; recalls and signals. He did all of them with no funny business or refusals!! 

For something a little different, I took his bumpers and did a little retrieving work. We did back, left and right casting and he did all of it correctly and then proceeded to heel position (with a hand signal). This is something we have hardly worked on but something he really seems to enjoy. 

I was so happy with his behaviour and performance today!!!

Tomorrow he's supposed to have tracking but it doesn't look like Mother Nature is going to cooperate so it may be postponed a week.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I am just in from timed run-thrus 

Faelan in Utility with extra signals and the judge crowding him since we had 4 minutes left after the complete run thru

Towhee in Open with drop it games rather than the DOR; we had time so we did a few extra BJs, and angled ROHJ tosses

They did very well.

There were a few of the top notch teams there and as always it was very interesting to watch them work although I honestly don't always understand how the dogs could know exactly what they are being corrected for .... a difficult exercise that the dog had to work through followed by a correction for a crooked front after the dog has finished sitting?? ... different styles I guess and that might well be why their dogs are very high scorers when they qualify.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Today Nugget and I were invited to train and have breakfast at my clubs presidents home where they have a new pole bldg.thats heated and set up strictly for dog training along with three other club members and we all had a good time. Each dog and handler got a utility and open run thru. Nugget today was somewhat "wired" and had a tough time settling down . His handler ( me) was brain dead on the scent discrimination exercise as I forgot to let Nugget smell my hand and just turned in place and sent him. Shame on me. He went to the pile but worked a little bit but started to come back to me so I gave him the " find it order) again and he went back worked at it found it and returned to me. Of course in a trial it would have been an NQ. On the signal exercise he sat on the signal to stand and my friend said this to was my fault as I didn't give the signal fast enough so the dog sat as he would on any heeling exercise. smart dog dumb handler.everything else was done well including the DR. Open all was good his drop a thing of beauty and the broadjump done other than when told to do his finish he went from the front walked to my side and looked at the " judge" the pres.of our club who always pets and plays with Nugget and he decided he would rather go say" Hi" rather than do the finish. All in all a good training session and a lot of fun , his open run thru other than the no finish was f+ f which he missed about half of them not being straight the same thing most trainers in the open class encounter. His heeling today other than a forge on a turn pretty terrific the little guy is doing well.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Took Flip to a show n go. He did great. Didn't even whine on stays. Directed jumping was to die for. Yet he still can't pass it in a real trial. Oh well, we'll keep trucking along until I just run out of ideas 

I couldn't bring Phoenix, I missed the little fellow! Came home and taught him how to side pass in heel position. His heeling is finally making progress. Here's a picture of him practicing his sit stay, posted for no other reason than I think he's a total cutey


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

It was supposed to be sunny today, it ended up being rainy, windy, and cold. We had field training with our dog school teacher. I don't mind the mud and rain, but I do when I dressed for sunshine. All I wore were jeans and a sweatshirt! Of course the sun came out as soon as training ended... oh well.

Todays training was with real birds, Bernie was a happy boy . He didn't care how grimy they were, they're still better than bumpers! Bernie did 2 sets of 3 singles. 2 were about 50 yards and 1 was about 150 yards I think. Dog school teacher said the longest one was longer than what we'd see in Junior. The other two were comparable to what we'd see for the shorter mark. It was interesting to see how much the wind threw Bernie off. I don't know if he was getting better at judging the falls and playing the wind or if the wind was dying down by the second go around, but he did much better the second time around. 

The first go around: On the 1st 50 yder he did run out far enough. Wind was blowing towards us and bringing the scent in. He didn't give up though, quick hunt and his nose got him to the bird very quickly. Straight shot on 2nd 50 yder. Really struggled with 150 yd mark first time around. Ran on complete wrong side of winger. Got a little confused when the winger started talking (aka the thrower next to the winger pretending to throw and hey heying him in the direction of the bird - he was so in the zone I don't think he realized there was a person out there) but then he caught wind of the bird and it was kind of funny, almost looked a magnet zooooooom to the bird. 

Second go around: Short marks were quick and good. 150 yard mark was much better, required a hunt but no help this time. 

We did the start of a double. Basically set Bernie up on a line facing one way, set off a winger. Then turned a straight 180 degrees and hand threw another bird. Had him get that one and return to me. That way he'd have to pass by me and there was really no chance for him to get to the other bird and mess up. He came straight to heel and delivered. Then we turned and I sent him to the next bird. Short hunt, he found it and he delivered. Good boy. We'll start practicing in the backyard with bumpers. 

But our biggest accomplishment at training today was heeling to the line!!!! We are not yet fluidly heeling. We are still sit, wait. I take a few steps and he heels to my side. Sit, wait. I take a few steps, etc. Sometimes we do a few steps of heeling together and then I sit him. I try to read how excited he is, how distracting the terrain is. But he did SUPERB! Dog school teacher was really impressed . I worked really hard with him all week. His steadiness at the line has improved dramatically too. Only once did his butt leave the ground and that was on the double. The rest of the drills only little jerks or nothing at all. We're really making progress. So proud of this guy. 

Slowly but surely we are getting there 

Oliver....well lets just say he wouldn't fetch the bumper and he peed on the bird. We have a lot of work to do.:no:


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

We actually had our tracking class yesterday in the rain, snow and mud!!

There were 4 of us out there (2 intermediate and 2 advanced). Some people didn't show up because of the lousy weather I'm assuming.

OMG Lexx was beside himself with excitement as soon as he saw his tracking harness. We did 2 short tracks: one straight and one with a 90 degree turn. Lexx cruised through both of them. I was wondering how he would take the corner considering the weather conditions but he didn't miss a beat!! He was so disappointed that we had to leave after 2 tracks. He wouldn't get in the vehicle. 

We had taken him out earlier in the morning for a run at the creek area by our house (in the rain). He figured going for a swim in the mucky creek was a pretty good idea and then chasing some ducks was even more fun. Seemed like the whole day he was wet and I was drying him! He is in his glory when he's outside in water. Needless to say, I am really looking forward to him starting his field work.

We have agility Wednesday night and will do some obedience work throughout the week.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

*Monday Class - Jacksipants*

*Jacks* - 

I again took advantage of getting to class very early and worked on *heeling* with him before class. And since the two jumps (high and bar) were already set up, I decided to test him on his "send to jump" in case I get tempted to enter him in rally. So I heeled a half circle up to the first jump, sent him to the jump, gathered him heel position and heeled the other half circle to the next jump.

I thought it was SO TELLING what I saw him do. 

20" bar jump = he jumped it HAPPILY.
16" high jump = he came to a complete stop and stared at it. 
20" bar jump again = ANOTHER VERY ENTHUSIASTIC jump.
16" high jump again = better this time, but still a lot of caution.

^ To me that just basically confirmed that a lot of the problems he's been having are mental. And probably relates to him bumping the jump a couple times before I got him in to a chiro to check his back/pelvis.  

Our teacher again split the class with her focusing on the newer people and she sent us experienced people off to the other end of the room to practice on our own. :uhoh: 

Which worked out great since I had LOTS of time to get all of Jacks' "things" done. 

So we did his jumps (solid 12" high jump, solid 40" broad jump - I know he will only need to do 12/24 in pre-open). Both jumps again were solid and enthusiastic. He needs a little more proofing to get him to hold his wait on the broad jump.

His drops on recall, I didn't time it this way, but was kinda cool - he dropped right next to a spot where a handler had her dog doing her broad jump front. I just did verbal, because I kinda assume he will be spazzed out and not looking at me in a trial....

Retrieves - he was VERY HAPPY to do these. Nuff said. 

Moving stands - I didn't have anyone to go over him, but at the very least a peek over my shoulder confirmed he was planting his feet nicely. 

Stays - he tried going down on the sit, but stopped himself when I gave him a verbal correction. That's it.

One thing to add... there's a good friend who has a mastiff girlie the same age as Jacks who is increasingly talking about retiring her because while she has everything else ready to actually show in open, the heeling isn't there. I had to stick my big nose in the middle of things, but yeah... she has to finish out the year at least and see what happens. I told her that I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE to be in her position with a dog who has all of the other pieces but just needs tightening up on heeling. !


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

*Monday Class - Bertiekins*

*Bertie*

Heeling - actually had a good long patch of heeling where he was just moving beautifully with his head up, prancing, and maintaining nice heel position. Probably this is where I have to scratch my head and see what I ask him to do... that type of movement has got to be more difficult to maintain for 10 minutes or whatever of heeling as opposed to actual heeling patterns which are less than a minute. 

Figure 8 - he did a very nice tight figure 8. Just not doing a heads up active heel though. The instructor saw that and just started having me do about turns in there to mix things up, and that did the job as far as waking him up. Perky or not, he still did a qualifying zero points off figure 8, so I was happy. 

Jumps - He is officially jumping the broad jump whether I toss a treat or not. I'm trying to toss the treat every other jump just to keep him from starting to cheat. He does a lovely arc to front each time. High jump, I did retrieves over a 12" jump and did treat tosses over a 16" jump. Each time was getting a very nice spring jump over the jump. Will work with the lady on Thursday on this, but I think it's fair to start asking for 16" jumps with a retrieve and 18" treat toss jumps. I'll go by what she says though.

Fronts - solid - except some anticipating. He's having the same "wait" issues that Jacks had at the same age. 

Drops - Solid

Retrieves - I forgot to do a ROF :doh:

Stays - Solid. Extra kudos thingy is he did his stays sitting right next to a girlie who is just out of standing heat. No sniffing issues. 


Rally -

We did an excellent course. Which partly, I didn't think that Bertie's off leash heeling is strong enough to do just yet, but I always take the leash off because it's EASIER to get around the course without the leash. 

Basically the only problems we had were with forging. I had to get him back into heel position a few times. And he sniffed a bunny stuffy in the offset f8.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

There's a chance I might get to put Phoenix in obedience class in June. The instructor said to go ahead and start him in the open class if we come.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

wouldn't an Open class include jumps?



Loisiana said:


> There's a chance I might get to put Phoenix in obedience class in June. The instructor said to go ahead and start him in the open class if we come.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Articles at home were done fine but when we got to class at club Nugget wasn't willing to put out his best effort . He did do the DR without any mistakes other than the #3 glove were he makes an arc to the right which may or may not be scored depending on the judge but its noticeably not coming directly back as in a novice recall. Go-outs were a little sloppy not really direct straight line to target area. ROF poor front 3x. BJ done on order but only one front was straight of the two that he did. ROHJ again fronts were not there. Heeling was fine but fig8 got a lag as he just wasn't into working tonight. The worst thing was his almost anticipation of a drop on the DOR , he did catch himself before he hit the floor and continued coming till I gave him a signal about 10 ft beyond but he did it then and again even with my helping him at this point his front was crooked. We did a second DOR with a verbal no problem this time and a third recall which was straight. His MSFE solid and nice including the call to heel which he did briskly ( for a change) and his lockup perfect. Signal exercise again he sat instead of standing and this had to be repeated the rest of the exercise was done well. Not a stellar training session several mistakes made but we will work on the poor aspects and try to improve them . This morning drop in training at SCKC and a better attitude on Nugget s part hopefully , I know I like morning training better than evening training when I'm fresh maybe it's the same for Nugget.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

My crew had last night and this morning off. It wasn't planned but I just learned some good people were fired... No good reason.... Just office man decided it was time to go seperate ways. One man had 21 years with the company. So I need to rearrange a few things so prepare for updating my skill sets.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Sunrise said:


> wouldn't an Open class include jumps?


I'd just put a bar on the floor for him if we did anything. Won't do the broad jump because I don't teach broad jump until they can do full length. But heeling, retrieving, fronts, finishes, DOR, stays, going through uprights, attention are all things he can work on at 8 months


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Well can't say Nugget was "up" this morning but he was vastly improved over last nights performance. Heeling and fig 8 pretty nice even on the signal exercise ( didn't go wide off leash) and he did the stand part twice , once with a verbal and a signal the second done the way it has to be done with a signal only. Again we did a short 8-10 ft go out with bait then 4 very pretty straight ones in a row with the jumps which he did very nice although they ( the jumps) were only 18 in. high because I was too lazy to change the boards on the HJ. MSFE good with beautiful lockup but the call to heel the sit was out a little as I didn't help him by sticking my leg out in back of me or throw a Piece of hot dog to get him to go far enough back so it would be straight. It is after all a distance of 12 ft to get to me. The DR was great other than the arc on glove three on the return but after I feel he has this exercise down solid I'll fix that . The BJ-ROHJ-ROF and the DOR all done fairly well and today I helped him on every front regardless even when they looked as if he was going to give a good front and on his own they were coming in quite a bit better than last night .
The morning at least today was a better training period. Tomorrow is a day off for us no reason other than he did pretty good today and earned himself a do nuttin day. 


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## Lucky Penny (Nov 13, 2011)

Run throughs went well last night! The ball was brought in the ring, no treats. The ring was fun in Luna's mind. Ball playing unexpectedly for being a good girl!


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

Training went so so today. I wasn't planning on doing anything, but it still hadn't started raining and even though its frigid, I figured I should take advantage of the dry weather. I'm posting all three videos, so you can see our struggles and everything, try not to laugh too hard . 






This first steadiness drill showed that Bernie clearly needed a refresher on exactly what being steady meant, and what a release cue is. Close is not good enough. With Bernie if I give an inch, he'll take a mile the next time around. His butt came up, that's not being steady. Once he's a reliable non-breaker we'll figure out what exactly his style is that's best for marking, but for now, steady means no movement. After a couple fails in a row, we stopped, had a little refresher session, and tried again.

So HERE you can also see pretty clearly the issue with how slowly Bernie responds when I ask for a heel and a sit. Its really frustrating. But, deep breaths, because this is actually huge progress for him. We actually couldn't even get him to sit next to us when we started. (I know crazy, right?) Some of you know of Bernie's fear/anxiety issues, well they extend to the pressure he feels being close to things. It took a very long time to get him into heel position, he'd always sit about a foot away because he felt uncomfortable being close. I need to throw away the frustration and just continue to train. 





Quick refresher of stay and that even though I give you a treat, say good boy, or walk away it does not mean you are released. You are not released until I give the release word! He did very good with this, I think his brain was still ticking from the earlier drill. I tried to sometimes reward with a treat and then release him to me (like when we went off healing) and sometimes release him to the bumper. That way he is not always anticipating a release to the bumper. I am hoping this will help reduce breaking issues.





Um....well at least his steadiness was much better! I can't believe he laid down with the bumper :doh: He's never done that before. But that's what long lines are for. Clearly I was getting frustrated with him. 

After this we did some heeling with tug, we had the same issue with the getting into heeling, but he did great while walking in heel position. Since its going to be raining for the next few days we'll have plenty of time to clean this up.


Just a general comment about my two dogs. They're SO different. With Oliver I say "Heel" and he doesn't stop adjusting himself until I say good. He whips himself into position and keeps wiggling his little butt until he's perfect. Clearly Bernie would eventually probably walk off... Bernie, I release to retrieve a mark. He'll hunt all day for that bumper, regardless of how many other interesting smells/distractions are out there. He'll persevere. Oliver, he'll make it maybe 10 yards before he veers off to sniff and pee, that's if he even picked his head up in the first place to see the bumper thrown.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Is it just me being a little sensitive about taking 4 years to get my Jacksipants through his stay problems well enough for his CD and even between age 2 and 3 wondering if I'd ever get him through it.... and same thing with Danny who had the complications of his elbow problems as well as him being shy of strangers (meaning the stand for exam was as hard for him as sits/downs were for Jacks)....

or is it hurtful to other people to read something like this somewhere?  



> I would say that the Golden that could not do a CD, RN and/or WC is pretty pathetic.


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## coaraujo (Nov 2, 2012)

I don't think you're being sensitive. A lot of people say how easy a JH/WC title should be to get. And with some dogs, I completely agree. But with Oliver, I know its going to be a long uphill battle. We will get there. But just because it doesn't come easily doesn't mean he's pathetic, or I'm pathetic as a trainer. Or at least I hope not! . Same with Bernie. I don't know if we'll ever get a CGC, let alone a CD or RN title. With his reactivity I don't think he could handle show environments, but that doesn't make him pathetic. In hunting his reactivity disappears, so we will keep hunting for the rest of his life. 

That's a very strong statement. Any title takes a lot of time and dedication and hard work. Each dog is different in what they need in training, not everyone has the time and resources to get that dog those things IMO


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Wow - 

No, I don't think you are being too sensitive, the comment is incredibly crass and has no basis in reality and further it is demeaning to not only the dogs without titles for whatever reasons (other priorities, physical issues etc) but it belittles the CD/RN and WC journey and the accomplishment these titles represent when/if they are earned - and they are earned, never given!!



Megora said:


> Is it just me being a little sensitive
> 
> ........
> ........
> ...


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Sunrise said it all. I have seen many dogs and handlers who for the many reasons that have been mentioned already and others that the title is just out of reach. A friend of mine has a CD on his Lab and has gone to over fifteen trials for his CDX and has yet to get a leg,yet in training his dog would qualify doing a fair job but at a trial won't hold the long sit. My own dog has taken over a year to learn the DR . All dogs are not created equal nor are trainers. Time money and knowledge along with good instructors are all factors that can make or break the acquiring of that sometimes elusive title. Just my thoughts and opinion.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Should say that this was not anyone on this forum or associated in any way with this forum. I don't want people thinking that some people on here were so thoughtless to say that.  

Anyhoo. 

It's a beautiful day outside, so I'm planning to be mad crazy insane at least for this week and take the dogs to class... even though that will def make this a 4 day week that I was out every night with the dogs.


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Megora said:


> Is it just me being a little sensitive . . .
> or is it hurtful to other people to read something like this somewhere?
> 
> "I would say that the Golden that could not do a CD, RN and/or WC is pretty pathetic."



This could bother me if I let it. It makes me think of Zoe and the time I spent training her. She was the first dog I ever trained for obedience and it was a learning experience for both of us. She was just about ready to compete for her CD when we lost her.

To me the comment indicates a lack of sensitivity and insight. I have to say that the comment that's sometimes made to the effect that any Golden could be a therapy dog strikes me the same way. Both comments devalue the particular talents of the dog achieving the accomplishment and the work of the person who trains and handles the dog.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

> I have to say that the comment that's sometimes made to the effect that any Golden could be a therapy dog strikes me the same way. Both comments devalue the particular talents of the dog achieving the accomplishment and the work of the person who trains and handles the dog.


I think the therapy dog category is a bit more problematic or upsetting to some people who have therapy dogs. Meaning I know of these dogs did their jobs in the obedience ring, conformation ring, and agility ring.... and in retirement just do visits at hospitals and other places. These dogs are very well trained, very well socialized, very beautiful and beyond and above thrive on meeting people and going room to room with their owners. These are dogs who need no special collars and their owners could be walking them off leash if that were allowed. Just extremely obedient and very well trained. 

That that, right? This was my early exposure to therapy dogs. My old instructor did therapy visits with her dogs after she retired them from everything else. And there was a lot of training and manners that these dogs had which delighted people. 

Fast forward to today, and you have anyone and everyone jumping into having their dogs be therapy dogs... after very basic obedience, if that. Doesn't help that many of us know of aggressive dogs who passed all their CGC and TDI and whatever else tests and they are now doing visits. There's not that same expectation of excellence - at all.  A lot of that is stuff I've found frustrating and it's probably why I do feel the same that you expressed in that - the "every dog can be a therapy dog" is damaging to the whole concept of what these dogs should do or be.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

*Wednesday Class*

May be the last one of these for a couple weeks.... 

Very good class day - both dogs. 

I'll just give the highlights which I thought were beyond awesome. 

Bertie is doing slow pace heeling. And he is now able to set up without me grabbing his butt and making him sit. Meaning going into the ring, setting up for heeling and setting up for stays - he was very good and responsive to me telling him to "get in". So I was getting the kooky idea that we may be able to do beginner novice in not a very long time after all.  

Jacks - both jumps were solid. And I'm more and more thinking that it might not be too crazy showing him in Pre-Open in fall or sooner. 

Only bad forlornful thing is that I realized that NEITHER of my guys are hot weather workers. It was warm tonight.


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## rhondas (Sep 10, 2010)

@Megora

I think you are making major assumptions about Therapy Dogs. 

Those of us who do therapy work (and that includes me) know that not all Goldens are meant to be therapy dogs. If they were, therapy groups would be full of them but most groups around here are at most 10% golden. The therapy groups where I live do not think much of CGC and TDI tests because they are given once. You can not just past these tests and become a therapy dog - a lot more goes into it.

Groups here normally have their own training and this includes a lot of interactions with dogs to ensure that they are not dog-dog aggressive because many times visits are done with teams. These groups then have their own evaluations or use Pet Partner evaluations. Pet Partners requires testing every two years for a reason - dogs can change and many times dogs do not pass their reregistration.

However, if a dog has issues with other dogs but are great with people they can still become a therapy dog because that particular group allows the team to have solo visits. Things like this can not be hidden. But this is not the norm.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

> Those of us who do therapy work (and that includes me) know that not all Goldens are meant to be therapy dogs......


 Absolutely agree. As I agreed with what The Z's said....


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## Lucky Penny (Nov 13, 2011)

If it is easy for goldens to get a CD, RN, and or WC, then why don't more have those titles? It is because they are HARD to get!


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