# June 2015: Training log



## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Seeing the reports coming in from the FDSA students scoring very well and collecting those big rosettes, but more importantly the teams having a great time in the ring is motivating me afresh 

Some of these teams have worked through some serious stress issues and are now rocking the rings! 

More games is one of my goals for the month.

Towhee and Faelan have some upcoming trials, Brady is starting to blossom into the confident dog he deserves to be and Aedan just loves training.

Towhee will have her trials this upcoming weekend (weather permitting since they are all outdoors), and then be on hiatus while we wait for her to come into season. Once in season, she will be tucked away at Barb's for the duration of her season, and Gaia willing her pregnancy and puppy rearing - she will be kept on antibiotics and safe from any rough housing. I miss her already LOL and she may not go into season until July or beyond!


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

I think actual classes will be backed up a little bit - I'm taking the summer off from the Monday classes (I normally do anyway because our instructor takes the summer off usually). Wednesday classes are on, but will have to do Open/Utility vs Novice just because of the time I get out of work. <= Not a huge issue though, I'd rather be in that class anyway because we can work on everything vs just Novice. And every other Thursday we do privates.

Big OVERHEAD goals this month:

1. Fix DOR. I found that shortening the distance helps a little, and might need to do that more right now so he gets the whole rhythm of going down on command as opposed to waiting for a second command.

2. Get more advanced with Directed Jumping. Currently we have the essentials trained, but a lot of guidance and not anywhere near asking for the whole sequence just yet. I don't want to get the whole sequence in a month, but I definitely want to wean off the excess guidance. 

3. Train articles again. If we are doing the Open/Utility class, I want to be able to participate with articles. Er. In public.  We can do it - Bertie was started and showed a lot of promise with knowing what I was asking for and finding the right articles, but we need to brush up on all that. 

4. Heeling. Get the left hand over the middle so we have a good formal off leash heel. 


**** We have shows every weekend this month, and I'm tentatively doing something in obedience each week. This weekend is BN again. Next weekend unless I totally freak out and go NO WAY!!!!! will be preferred novice. And I probably will enter preferred novice each time it is offered, or beginner novice otherwise.


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

_Sunrise,_ good luck next weekend. Maybe I'll see you. I was hoping to visit one or more of the area outdoor shows with Gracie to give her some exposure to the show environment. Don't know if we'll make it though since we have a makeup class mid-day Saturday and therapy dog evaluation Sunday. Trying not to get my hopes up too much but so far Gracie has been doing well with it . . . so, maybe. Obedience training has been going slowly but is definitely a big help with the items on the therapy dog test.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Weather is still lousy chilly and damp and my yard is very wet so not much we can do but Hombre and I did get some heeling in which his attention was on me and other than a couple sits with his butt " out " pretty decent. We also did the fig8 twice and he has really mastered this . Tomorrow club where I'll be able to train with both boys and instruct my class .


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## KeaColorado (Jan 2, 2013)

We hiked 3 hours this morning to the top of a mountain to watch the sunrise - 1500 foot elevation gain. Harris, for the first time in his life, wore himself out. He spent the first 30 minutes doing zoomies on the way up. 

A herd of about 15 deer crossed the trail about 100 feet in front of us at one point and both dogs came quickly when called. It might not be a title, but it's definitely a brag! I think we will be taking the rest of today off


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

The rain stopped, at least for now. Still chilly out but got some training in today. Rof's, dor's, mini go out's. Can't do any jumping cause my jumps are falling apart. Need to invest in some new ones. Formal and fun heeling, figure 8's. He tends to crowd me some, trying to fix that. Pretty good session today.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

We had a private lesson and while Faelan was doing a Utility Run Thru, the skies opened up so we headed indoors.

*Faelan:* Awesome!! Simply awesome in Utility. 1 bump on a left turn and a slight wide on an about were about all she could fault on his heeling. The other exercises were solid!

*Towhee:* we moved inside for Ms Towhee and so she did not do any jumping (raining and thin rubber matting left me not wanting to chance any jumping). Her heeling was excellent as was her Figure 8, DOR perfect, ROF perfect. Her 1st all by her lonesome Sit with me OOS; she broke. Again not so surprising since this is now her 2nd time doing an OOS sit all by herself. Reset she was fine. Her down was fine.

*Brady* worked getting comfortable, some simple agility sequences and heeling 

*Aedan *worked on staying quiet in the crate and then polite greeting etc

The focus was on Faelan and Towhee today. Cheryl was wicked impressed with how far Ms Towhee has come - she remembers her from when Towhee first came to live me me and could only be described as a wild child extraordinaire


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

Very busy time of year for me at work, but still squeezing in training time when I can. We've only been to class once in the past two months or so. Just need some polishing on Open fronts (dumbbell) and DOR is still not ring ready. Need to get some run throughs in at some point. We still have several months until Fall, so no worries. I'm trying to make the training more fun, since the sessions tend to be longer with the added Open exercises. I'll probably start splitting the exercises, so we're only working a couple things per day + heeling. Quality > Quanitiy.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Decided today I would not take Nugget to training at club but instead train at home where his chances of success in utility would be increased because at club the rings have 4 columns in each ring that support the roof and can block a dogs view of the jump depending on their go out. It was a good decision because it is cool and both utility and open were each done successfully. His go outs were very nice and he took the jumps on the first order of over. Gloves and articles very well done not only correctly but without any poor pickups out of the grass. The only faults today in either class were his fronts which about 40% weren't straight or were off on one side or the other and his logging on about turns. Hoping I can get same result at the trial in Champaign this weekend at least he is coming around on the jumps.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Hombre last night had his act together doing nice heeling and fig8 exercise as well as going over the BJ 3x with my calling him over but done on the first attempt each time. Recalls fast but fronts all over the place. Went around the HJ the first attempt but then went over 3x . This morning both boys and I are going to SCKC for training. 
PS. Hombre broke long down when I bounced a ball during the long s+d exercise but I got 2 more to do the same , just a little " proofing " I do with my class


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

Beautiful day out today. Did some heeling, figure 8's, rof's. Remembered I had another set of high and bar jumps in our shed, dug them out, yippee. they are decent. still need to replace my broad jump. Have rally class tonight.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Hombre this morning did 60 ft.go outs to a baited spot on the wall fast straight and he even waited till I said go out ( for a change ) His ROF getting better but fronts still need a lot of work. Heeling today just nice. He is coming along and he is taking the jumps with me in front of them baiting him on the first " over". Good day for Hombre today . Nugget did pretty good but he would have NQ utility taking the WRONG jump but at least he went over a jump. Boys get tomorrow off to go to the groomer as its SPA day for all three of them.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I am hoping the yard dries out enough by tonight for some motivational jump work...


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Today Hombre is 8 months old hard to believe not that he is 8 months old but that he lived long enough to see it. Hombre and the other two are at the groomers and I'm so very glad they are because both Nugget and Hombre have been bad boys not listening and exhausting what little patience I have left . The only one that hasn't been a PAIN ( you know where ) is Sadie who doesn't get trained but who was a good girl and did as I asked this morning. Hope my groomer doesn't call for several more hours telling me the " kids want to go home "


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

The dog walker just texted the dogs are good with the work crews there  

The contractor, who I had told where to get the signed contract & check within the house but then rethought and suggested (too late) that the dog walker get his contract type stuff for him rather than walking into a house with 3 loose dogs, just emailed me that he was all set and my dogs were all 'very friendly' when he went in LOL I'll bet they were! Aedan was crated so at least George, the contractor, only had the adults come visiting.


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## BriGuy (Aug 31, 2010)

Hazel and I are going to novice classes on Wednesdays - there are mostly younger dogs in this group, so it works out well. So far we are working on chin heeling, rear end exercises on the flower pot base, tuck sits, fold back downs, kick back stands, and short stays. 

The instructor is great, and has a knack for showing us the subtle tweaks we should make to get the results we want. Mostly, at this age, I think it is good getting her out working around other dogs and people without interacting with them.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums...C-F720-4BC8-BFBF-0D286B835FD3_zpstmdnz7oe.jpg

Hombre back from the groomer today and he is 8 months old today.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

Nuggetsdad said:


> http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums...C-F720-4BC8-BFBF-0D286B835FD3_zpstmdnz7oe.jpg
> 
> Hombre back from the groomer today and he is 8 months old today.


He's gorgeous, what a good looking boy he is !


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Hombre is one handsome dog


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

We did Open/Utility class tonight - Bertie did pretty darn good (very low expectations). 

Moving stands - were perfect. I did do a novice return to heel vs calling, because I don't want his stands messed up prior to us getting his CD.

Heeling - we did 2 individual heeling patterns with instructor. First one was.... yucky. Second one was gorgeous. So he needed a little warm up, I guess. 

F8 - we just fine. 

ROF - we had a little distraction that we haven't proofed for (4 people at a time throwing dumbbells while others are retrieving). Bertie did retrieve OK, but needed reminders to come front. And he was just really distracted by dogs running the other way and/or dumbbells dropping as he was returning to front. 

Directed Jumping - Pretty durn cool. His go-outs were perfect, with me stopping him about 3 feet away from the gate. And his directed jumping was acceptable with a little guidance. His bar jump is currently better than his high jump - odd, because it used to be the other way around. 

Signals - were fine, but introduced a little platform for the front feet. He's scooting his butt forward when sitting after the down, so I'm trying to get his movement folding upwards and back. Platforms helped a ton in class, so I need to figure out how to do something like that at home. 

Gloves - we played with 1 glove, building the motivation up and working on getting him to grab more of the glove in his mouth and retrieve. He did OK.

Broad Jump - Had a balk for the first one. I think because the set up was really different. Motivated jumps and then went back to asking for a couple formal jumps which he did just fine. 

Stays - solid.

Adele asked about articles and I hemmed and hawed. Indicated he's been started, but I need to unbury my article bag (under my winter coats and boots at the bottom of the closet.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

Last night's Nosework class was a success for both dogs. It was a nice night so we were outside, three hides, outside in the dog walk area at the club. One on the dog waste receptacle on the fence, one on the garbage can and one on the light pole where dogs pee. My husband is handling Tugg, has had little experience, but Tuggy nailed his runs. His first run was beautiful, found all three within a minute, his alert was a pretty sit and a paw. High fives, Tuggy ! Raider too had good runs, but unfortunately I think he will be going in for a vet check. I think he is developing Laryngeal Paralysis, is getting the dry cough thing and heavy breathing. I am a little worried. 
Yesterday My dear husband fixed my jumps, so Tugg and I did a little jumping today. But it is really humid out so didn't over work him. He is coming along nicely.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

Just got home from the vets. A suspicious area on x-ray. Either a lung infection or something really bad. If antibiotics work by Monday we are in the clear. Can't bear to think of the alternative.


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Hoping for the best for Raider.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Just a little prayer for Raider


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Sending good thoughts that Raider is fine 



my4goldens said:


> Just got home from the vets. A suspicious area on x-ray. Either a lung infection or something really bad. If antibiotics work by Monday we are in the clear. Can't bear to think of the alternative.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Ms Towhee earned her 2nd CDX leg today at the Hudson Valley GRC trial - I was a bit worried when the judge commented that I sure had my hands full with this little girlie and that she (Towhee) obviously had quite a sense of humor LOL

She scored a 195 for a 1st place; okay she was the only dog in the class but with a 195 in Open A probably would have been in 1st anyway LOL She jumped up for the dumbbell while in front so a point here, a half point there but she did pretty well I thought. 

Faelan NQd on the signals - very odd; right down the line the dogs were failing the signals except the Great Dane who Q'd for a 1st  So, I did not show Faelan in Open -- I had a handler lined up for groups but the Open class was not that important to me for my Faelan since I am going for UDX legs  Faelan, btw, was working a 196 before he failed the signals; his fronts were very nice but he was a bit of a clown with the articles (must be some awesome smells) -- I thought he failed Directed Retrieve but apparently not LOL He must listen to the judge better than I 

I met Rita with Cooper (she was there with Cooper's breeder Nora). Cooper is just a beautiful in person as he is in pictures. She saw both Faelan & Towhee's runs


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Congratulations to you and Miss Towhee.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Just got home from training and for a change it went well with both boys. Nugget although slow on a couple things would have been in the 190s in utility and open the high 190s . Jumps and go outs well done on first order now to keep it together for Sun. Hombre a little wild and a bit of anticipation on ROF-Recalls and Go Outs unless I held his collar but having fun and very enthusiastic because he was being rewarded with his fav cheese in the can. Go outs from 60 ft.fast straight perfect and he would sit and face me AFTER he licked his cheese off the gates or wall. He also did BJ a full 44 inches clearing beautifully but only once at that distance. He balked on the first jump over the bar but again no work no treat then he remembered and went over it a couple times at 16 inches and now I'm also giving a direction when I say over as I'm over to the side a couple feet. Recall done with a verbal and signal holding his beloved cheese can in front of me which I'll continue doing till I feel he will do what I want without it just from repetition. Good session got a lot done and both boys heeling OFF leash and fig 8 very nice were getting there.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Sharon - huge congrats on Miss Towhee's 2nd leg. One more to go! 

***

We have BN again tomorrow morning. I'm PLANNING on doing it for extra experience. I guess I'm really hoping though that we qualify and we do well. It will of course go a long way as far as telling me whether I'm getting up at the crack of dawn next week up in Traverse City for a pre-novice entry or if I'm just skipping that and sleeping in a couple extra hours to just do conformation. Pre-Novice starts at 8AM?! Which means getting up at 6AM to drive up to the fairgrounds and set up. I think I've been spoiled by all the conformation entries which are normally in the afternoon.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Kept it very short this morning just too many other things that HAD to be done. Two go outs and then each was followed by either the BJ or the HJ everything executed very well and Nugget was just full of himself especially when he recieved his promised JACKPOT.


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Sunrise said:


> Ms Towhee earned her 2nd CDX leg today at the Hudson Valley GRC trial - I was a bit worried when the judge commented that I sure had my hands full with this little girlie and that she (Towhee) obviously had quite a sense of humor LOL
> 
> She scored a 195 for a 1st place; okay she was the only dog in the class but with a 195 in Open A probably would have been in 1st anyway LOL She jumped up for the dumbbell while in front so a point here, a half point there but she did pretty well I thought.


Nice! Good job, Towhee!


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

After Maple finished her UD a couple of weeks ago, I mostly let her rest on her laurels for a week. This week, I've concentrated on her weak exercise: go-outs. I've been doing a lot of motivation-building (I hope) with baited go-outs. 

In trials, she has problems with not going out far enough, not sitting on the Turn command, and/or anticipating the jump without waiting for the command. I think she is trying to hurry the process along so she can get out of the ring and get her jackpot. To address that issue, I'm trying to get her amped up about her reward before I do a set of go-outs. 

The past few days, before breakfast, I've been preparing her food while she watches and adding a few extra goodies to her regular dog food. Then, I tell her she has to earn those goodies and we go out and work on something.

The dew fall has been heavy this week, so if I do jumps in the morning, I've been setting the jumps at 12". Yesterday morning, on her first go-out, she went all the way to the gate, but didn't sit on the Turn command. I reminded her to sit, she sat, I said good dog, crouched, and called her in. Sent again. This time, she sat. She took the jump nicely. 

I sent again. Again, all the way out, but no sit. I'm sure she was imagining breakfast. I reminded her to sit and called her in without a jump. I sent again. This time, nice sit, nice jump. Another send. Nice sit, nice jump. She got breakfast.

Last night, I moved a few ring gates to the other side of the yard and set out an agility bar jump and a panel jump to change the picture. We worked on go-outs and gloves after I had every thing set up, so it wasn't completely new this morning when I tried it. I prepared her breakfast and showed her the extra hot dog pieces I'd added. She was very excited. She did a pair of perfect go-outs and jumps the first time. Great! If only we can repeat that at Missoula in a couple of weeks.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Thanks!!

And you are sooooo lucky! Today I woke up at 4am to be on the road for 6am for class starting at 8:30. Didn't have bad traffic today but I left stuff set up yesterday so today I bring everything to the crates, fill water bowls, put down blankies, set up dumbbells, articles etc Look around and rings 10 & 11 are nowhere to be seen.

I go running to the Show Super and ask where rings 10 & 11 are and he responds he has no idea!! So here I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to find where my rings are and they are 3 lots down; maybe. So reload the truck, drive down and someone tells me he doubts obedience is in this section, so off I go running again and see an obedience person I know and breathlessly ask her where obedience is. Go running down to verify that the obedience is indeed setting up (way far away and much lugging for crates) and setup barely in time for Utility.

No joy today: Faelan failed signals and then failed the ROHJ - I threw the dumbbell to the side but more importantly kind of short -- so while he knows to come over the jump with an off side throw he just had no room to reorient after his pickup --- my bad.

Towhee was funny in Open. Nice heeling but distracted between exercises. Beautiful ROF & ROHJ. The DOR she paused a good second between her cue and responding!! Nice after that. But, her piece de resistance?? She kind of tiptoed to the broad jumps, popped straight up, landed cleanly and turned for a nice front -- I could hear people holding their breath and releasing it ; seriously! Then she broke her Sit -- reports said her nose went down, she adjusted, her nose went down again and her body followed <sigh> But a puppy owner (OTCh + almost there OTCh) was watching and says she now knows where her pup gets it from LOL Independence and party animal rolled into one golden body --- LOL Nanananana attitude is in the genes and really, they are way more entertaining than a lot of dogs and develop quite a following ...

I did not stick around for the 2nd trial - my leaving did not affect available OTCh points
=== 

OH & I heard someone say it!! With my very own ears. Her wicked excellent dog broke his sit stay (lots of that today) and I heard her say

' I feed him, I house him, I train him, I give him medical care; the least he can do is sit his ____ butt down' while counting off on her fingers and stewing -- this was someone I love watching. FWIW, I was very disappointed to hear that venting, or to hear her say she was going to beat that dog (the 3rd time she said it I did start to wonder if she was really joking; she gave me the stink eye when I said 'thats 3 times!'). 

Oh well, brings the lesson back home to me that some people need to step back and look at the whole idea of what a hobby is... 




Megora said:


> Sharon - huge congrats on Miss Towhee's 2nd leg. One more to go!
> 
> ***
> 
> We have BN again tomorrow morning. I'm PLANNING on doing it for extra experience. I guess I'm really hoping though that we qualify and we do well. It will of course go a long way as far as telling me whether I'm getting up at the crack of dawn next week up in Traverse City for a pre-novice entry or if I'm just skipping that and sleeping in a couple extra hours to just do conformation. Pre-Novice starts at 8AM?! Which means getting up at 6AM to drive up to the fairgrounds and set up. I think I've been spoiled by all the conformation entries which are normally in the afternoon.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

> And you are sooooo lucky! Today I woke up at 4am to be on the road for 6am for class starting at 8:30. Didn't have bad traffic today but I left stuff set up yesterday so today I bring everything to the crates, fill water bowls, put down blankies, set up dumbbells, articles etc Look around and rings 10 & 11 are nowhere to be seen.


 Must confess - I'm driving up the night before to stay at a favorite hotel (it's near a couple lakes and has wide open space for me to sort of let the dogs loose so they can run a little) about 40 minutes from the show site so I don't have to get up at 4AM to get up there (we're about 3 hours away).


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

One session down

I took the 3 oldest dogs (Faelan, Towhee and Brady) and practiced Out of Sight stays. Just in the backyard but we have a bunch of construction equipment and material hanging around. I alternated their positions and each time went behind the privacy fence- about 70 feet straight ahead, 30 feet to the left, around an equipment shed and down about 40 feet where I could watch through the decorative fence topping. I could hear my neighbors opening and closing their door and honestly was a bit surprised at how much quieter the gun range sounds on the other side of the fence -- unanticipated bonus for bad neighbors I guess.

First a 3 minute sit, followed by a 5 minute down, finishing up with a 3 minute sit. Towhee did have some toe tapping (she seems to need this energy release) and on the final sit, neighbors must have started barbecuing or something since all nose went airborne and to their right - but they stayed.

Good dogs!!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Good session with Nugget this morning . He did everything in both utility and open and in both class's did a good job both in mid 190s . Fronts as usual and lagging on the abouts also usual mistakes but the rest was nice my big worry are the go outs and taking the jumps in utility which again today very well done. Hoping it carries over thru tomorrow's trial still looking for UDX leg # 6.

Now Hombre today was TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE not listening wanting only to play refusing the jumps or going around . His fronts on recalls or ROF very very POOR AND NOT ONE CLEAN PICKUP OF THE DUMBBELL WAS ACCOMPLISHED. He won this round and he did manage to exhaust my patience AGAIN his only saving grace today were very very nice go outs which were baited and a good SFE.


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Sending many good thoughts for Raider! Towhee sounds like so much fun to watch, I can see why she has some followers!

Most of our training this week has been anywhere but home with the exception of Monday's class. The garden section of Lowes makes it very easy to practice out of sight stays while peering through plant leaves from the next isle . Thankfully a portion of the garden section has a roof over it since it has rained every day here this week...except today. Consequently we did no jump work this week.

Got up at 4:30 this morning for a trial an hour and a half away. Open A started at 8:00. We NQ'd on the Retrieve over the high jump. Despite my trying to throw the dumbbell straight or at best angled to the right (Finley turns to the left)..,It bounced and bounced way to the left. I tried looking at the center of the jump and mentally willing her to take the jump on the way back, but around it she came just as happy as could be :uhoh:. The other issue, on the retrieve on flat she went straight to heel so we lost quite a few points on that...Good news though, her heeling was really nice and focused. It felt so good to know she was right there with me. As nice as I felt it was and others complimented on, she lost 4 points on it. Also, on a good note she maintained her stays. 20 dogs in Open A with 2 qualifying today. 1st place was a 193.5. We're going to give it anther shot tomorrow.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

good luck tomorrow - weather permitting I may be heading out to trials tomorrow too!

Just as well I decided to spend time with all the dogs and work a few things today - a Ty x Towhee puppy owner was planning on meeting us so I emailed her that I would not be going - she emailed back that it was good timing since when she woke up (she lives probably an hour closer to the show site), it was pouring!

Off soon with Faelan to practice some stuff off property - if the T storms don't come rolling through. I might head to a different park that has a rabies clinic and dog registration event going on -- even if the event has stopped, the park should have some interesting smells!

ETA: Faelan may be placing an ad for a new handler!! Why, you may ask? Well because I, his handler, had reverted to my standard DOWN signal. Not the signal I had to change his down cue to because of field work! At the park it occurred to me after several failures and lo and behold! Give him the correct signal (I really dislike the signal - it is kind of a pushing motion chest high) and down he goes. Why did I ever mess my dog up by trying field work ??? Poor Faelaney - a certain someone is right - he is a saint ; he must be to put up with everything!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

> Sharon we all mess our dogs up good thing they are so forgiving.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

At BN trial today - we had an NQ on the sit with me walking behind him - but I was actually pretty happy with how Bertie did. He did not do much wrong out there as far as regular obedience stuff. The sit stay in the middle of the ring with you walking around, it's not really something you have outside of BN.

One "funny" thing is a big performance breeder from Wisconsin was there (her dogs were awesome to watch out there).... but I did not immediately recognize her. For whatever reason, I thought she had red hair vs blond hair. So she was sitting next to a Novice A person with a lab who I had stopped to chitter with while waiting for the judge to come back from lunch. The lady was kinda hemming and hawing about her dog not being well bred. Which led to me basically saying a lot of nice things about labs (particularly your average American field lab), particularly based on seeing a couple labs just charging out into the lake and moving out REALLY fast retrieve after retrieve after retrieve. I was comparing to my guys who spend a lot of time swimming and are really solid water dogs and are powerful swimmers in their own right, but totally nothing compared to those labs I saw. 

As I was saying all this - a lot of it just being nice and getting a novice A person past their nerves and all that. I saw the lady next to her (who I now know who she was) looking around and giving Bertie a "no wonder, oh yuck" look. LOL. At the time I did a "dog breed check" and realized she had two field looking goldens with her and guessed to she was type-snobbing and didn't think anything past that. 

Now I know who she was though - I wish I'd shut my mouth.


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## boomers_dawn (Sep 20, 2009)

Sunrise said:


> Why did I ever mess my dog up by trying field work ???


Because he liked it and did a good job? ::roflmao::woot2::banana::nana:


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Today did not go well. More info on my FB wall but suffice it to say, Faelan will need to prove to me that he deserves to walk back into the ring with me before I will even consider putting his show collar on him. No he did not pee or dump. To my mind his nose antics were way worse.

Towhee is on hiatus for upcoming feminine events, but her mistakes were just mistakes. Although I need to beg, borrow & steal people to help me with her in between exercise movements especially when there are delays .....


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Gracie and I passed the Pet Partner therapy dog evaluation today. It wasn't quite as smooth as I would have liked but we did it. The high point of it was a couple of participating volunteers commenting afterwards how attached to me Gracie seemed to be and how she was constantly watching me, even though she clearly loves interacting with others. I loved hearing this since attention and focus are the things I've been concerned about in our obedience training. Funny how things work out, I thought we'd be farther along in obedience before we'd pass the therapy dog test.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Congratulations !! Go Gracie 



TheZ's said:


> Gracie and I passed the Pet Partner therapy dog evaluation today. It wasn't quite as smooth as I would have liked but we did it. The high point of it was a couple of participating volunteers commenting afterwards how attached to me Gracie seemed to be and how she was constantly watching me, even though she clearly loves interacting with others. I loved hearing this since attention and focus are the things I've been concerned about in our obedience training. Funny how things work out, I thought we'd be farther along in obedience before we'd pass the therapy dog test.


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

_Sunrise,_ sounds like it wasn't a good day. I'd try to remember all the things Faelan has done right for you over the years.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Number 6 UDX leg has become VERY elusive. Nugget qualified in utility but was a wild child moving on the stand part of the MSFE as the judge went over him her exam was a little over the top as most of the dogs moved. His go outs were perfect AND he flew over the jumps YES YES YES. heeling was Sloppy heeling wide and forging. Gloves were very nice as was articles other than his first of 3 anticipated finish's. He also fell in love with the judge going to her for cuddles, she said he is a very friendly dog anyway long story short a190 in utility.
Open he blew the DOR AND ANTICIPATED 2 FINISH's other than these disasters he did everything well. Oh well it was only 224 miles round trip. I'm a little discouraged especially after the whole week ' s training which was very nice and WITHOUT ANY ANTICIPATION ON ANYTHING. We will give it another shot next weekend. 22 dogs showed 13 qualified. Yesterday I was told a woman from Minn. got back to back 1991/2 in open and utility WOW!!! Of course it was a golden.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

> The Zs WTG CONGRATS!!


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Thank you.

Faelan has done amazing things - you are absolutely right. 





TheZ's said:


> _Sunrise,_ sounds like it wasn't a good day. I'd try to remember all the things Faelan has done right for you over the years.


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## Titan1 (Jan 19, 2010)

Nuggetsdad said:


> Number 6 UDX leg has become VERY elusive. Nugget qualified in utility but was a wild child moving on the stand part of the MSFE as the judge went over him her exam was a little over the top as most of the dogs moved. His go outs were perfect AND he flew over the jumps YES YES YES. heeling was Sloppy heeling wide and forging. Gloves were very nice as was articles other than his first of 3 anticipated finish's. He also fell in love with the judge going to her for cuddles, she said he is a very friendly dog anyway long story short a190 in utility.
> Open he blew the DOR AND ANTICIPATED 2 FINISH's other than these disasters he did everything well. Oh well it was only 224 miles round trip. I'm a little discouraged especially after the whole week ' s training which was very nice and WITHOUT ANY ANTICIPATION ON ANYTHING. We will give it another shot next weekend. 22 dogs showed 13 qualified. Yesterday I was told a woman from Minn. got back to back 1991/2 in open and utility WOW!!! Of course it was a golden.


I wonder if that was my friend Lois and her guy Hydro.. They are an awesome team and I know she was in IL!


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

So it occurred to me that I have not been consistent.

Faelan knows his job. It is time for him to have the consistent consequences in training. 

So this morning after our hike, I brought him outside to work signals. No food, no toys and frankly no smiling. He failed his drop cue. So, no help from me. He knows this and needs to think things through. So he loses his turn. Into the house he goes while Towhee, Brady and Aedan get their turns

Towhee sat on the down signal but her I help. She does nice heeling and completes the pattern a 2nd time. Run out of the ring for a jackpot.

Brady works great signals and heeling, so we run out of the ring for his jackpot.

Aedan gets to start some heeling work (luring galore with the treat held at my seam) and then some recall and get-it-Come games with food offered between my legs for fronts - note; he has a rock back sit preference so I'll need to address that.

So where is the jackpot reward kept? Just outside the back door where Mr Faelan can hear and smell rewards being enjoyed.

I bring Faelan out again, and lo and behold, a perfect drop! Party, run out and jackpot. Back in to the ring and very nice heeling followed by a perfect drop, sit and a recall signal with a party and run out of the ring for a jack pot.

Faelan, I believe, is too experienced for help or assistance now. 

But he does deserve an opportunity to prove to me that he deserves for his show collar to be put back on, and that he has earned the right to step back int the ring with me.


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

Starting to ramp it up again after more than a month of taking it pretty easy. Did an open run through in the park this morning. One slightly crooked sit is all I noticed. All fronts and finishes straight! Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about that. Hopefully, we can replicate that in the ring. Might do a fun match on Sunday. We still havent done a run through other than the 2-3 we've done in the park.


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

Nuggetsdad said:


> Number 6 UDX leg has become VERY elusive. Nugget qualified in utility but was a wild child moving on the stand part of the MSFE as the judge went over him her exam was a little over the top as most of the dogs moved. His go outs were perfect AND he flew over the jumps YES YES YES. heeling was Sloppy heeling wide and forging. Gloves were very nice as was articles other than his first of 3 anticipated finish's. He also fell in love with the judge going to her for cuddles, she said he is a very friendly dog anyway long story short a190 in utility.
> Open he blew the DOR AND ANTICIPATED 2 FINISH's other than these disasters he did everything well. Oh well it was only 224 miles round trip. I'm a little discouraged especially after the whole week ' s training which was very nice and WITHOUT ANY ANTICIPATION ON ANYTHING. We will give it another shot next weekend. 22 dogs showed 13 qualified. Yesterday I was told a woman from Minn. got back to back 1991/2 in open and utility WOW!!! Of course it was a golden.


I'm pretty sure that woman from Minnesota is one of my instructors. That's a really young dog too. Only 3 I think.


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Finley is getting tonight off from class and Banshee will go instead. She qualified on Sunday and got second place with a score of 188.5

Heel off Leash: -5.5 
I don't know what the points off were for. Truthfully some of it seems a blur. I can tell you that she was one happy girl in there, prancing, looking up, with her tail wagging. (or so I was told!) I never once thought she wasn't with me, and thought we did pretty good. I definitely can see the value of video and I think in July I'll ask my friends husband to tape it. 

Drop on recall: -1
She came in so fast and then dropped just as fast. She ended up sliding like she was going into home base. I have seen other dogs do it, but this was a first for her. I was really surprised. Her front was off and I guess her finish too. Can't say that for sure. 

Retrieve on Flat: -2 Front was not straight, maybe the way she was holding it, and maybe her finish. Again, video would have been a big help.

Retrieve over the high-jump: -3 She went straight to heel and was probably not straight at that.

At this point I had said "Let's go Finley!" and we were heading to the broad jump (which was in front of the gate we had originally entered the ring in) and she proceeded to head to the gate. So, I'm calling her, clapping my hands, and patting my hip...on the verge of panic that she was going out that gate. But, thankfully she came running back, I told her to heel, and we proceeded to set up for the broad jump. No points off for that!

I was nervous and the adrenalin was flowing going in. The judge told me to remember to breath...When it was all said and done, he again said with a smile, "you can breath now."

We got many compliments on the way back to our seat, people saying how nice she is to watch..have I mentioned I should have taped it? :doh:

There were 18 dogs entered, but only 11 showed up for this class. 1st place went to an aussie who got a score of 193.5

Knowing we had qualified up until the point of the stays was great, but those 3 and 5 minutes seem to go on and on....

Our friend said he was a little worried that Finley would break her sit because she was looking left and right, scanning the room. On the down she rested her head on the mat between her paws and never budged. Here's a picture of her with her ribbons:


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Congratulations  that is wonderful!

Videos can be very helpful, I have one score that still has many of us puzzled that was on video but for the most part they really help.





MaureenM said:


> Finley is getting tonight off from class and Banshee will go instead. She qualified on Sunday and got second place with a score of 188.5
> 
> Heel off Leash: -5.5
> I don't know what the points off were for. Truthfully some of it seems a blur. I can tell you that she was one happy girl in there, prancing, looking up, with her tailwagging. (or so I was told!) I never once thought she wasn't with me, and thought we did pretty good. I definitely can see the value of video and I think in July I'll ask my friends husband to tape it.
> ...


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Huge congrats, Maureen<:

Considering some rough performances in Open A that I've seen recently - you guys did great from the sounds of it.

***

I pulled articles out for the first time in a few months....  

Bertie did pretty good. He did balk about retrieving after FINDING the article. I think a little confused about me stringing the commands together maybe (find it + bring it back). 

I tucked him out on the other side of the gate and brought Jacks in to demo for his brother. Jacks is a little show off when it comes to articles. I'm not sure if the tracking classes helped as well, but he is super enthused about finding the article and bringing it back ASAP. No hesitation or mistakes. 

Brought Bertie back out and he seemed to have the idea of what he was supposed to do - raced out to find the article and brought it back ASAP just like his brother did.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

> Maureen congratulations you guys did great!!!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

We didn't get much training in today as the county is having work done in the bldg.the club rents and it poured down so outside anything was out of the question but Nugget got a little heeling done this morning and tonight he refused to do the first go out. He doesn't work well in this bldg. the floor was slightly wet from humidity so jumping Nugget wasn't attempted. Hombre did a few baited go out which were nice and his heeling was fair .The SFE solid and he jumped the HJ TWICE at 16 inches with me calling him over and the BJ at 30 inches with the fourth board set on end in front of the first board to attain a higher jump which he did when called over. Tomorrow SCKC


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Faelan is definitely in a dip phase ... interesting.

After our hike this morning, I decided to use the side yard with rope fencing for quick sessions. The grass is wet from overnight showers so I thought the smells would be enticing since that is one of the areas wildlife go through -- including fox & coyotes.

Faelan first up some heeling with not 100% focus but perhaps 95% so he was still doing a nice job. Leave him for the signals; drop signal he thinks about it and sits. Back into the house he goes.

Towhee does some really nice heeling after a minute or so of free time to acclimate. Then nice signals.

Brady snaps immediately into working mode and did some beautiful heeling with one slightly wide about, reset, repeat and fine. Drop signal required a verbal the 1st time but 2nd sets of signals was beautiful.

Aedan wants to work when it is his turn - for him I have treats on me  Minor heeling (2-4 steps) a few times intermixed with sits, stands drops and fronts. I did not want to get him too amped since we were on the side yard and while I don't think he's go nuts why chance it when there is no barrier to the road?

Then Faelan came out again. He was antsy at the door when I got each of the other dogs and snapped into 100% attention immediately! Beautiful heeling, thought about the drop signal and slowly went down ... PARTY!!!! ... yes, it was slow, but it has been a bugaboo for almost a week. No treats but lots of personal play and praise. Set up again for the heeling, drop & it was gorgeous!! as was his sit and recall - I released him as he was coming into front position and we ran to the back door to get his treats.

For Faelan, Towhee and Brady I had no treats or toys. For each of then I also went in to praise/party with personal play the first successful drop. Shorter heeling pattern setting up for signals with full signal pattern and then a break out run to the treats at the back door for a jack pot.

I need to start switching up the signal patterns for each of the older dogs -- I was eyeing the deck furniture which is currently in the front yard near the corner of the house -- a few chairs and tables. Perhaps I can start sitting or standing on those to change the sight picture -- they should start staining the deck today so the furniture will remain in the yard for a few more days ...

I will give Faelan another week or so, and then probably bring him in to the vet to make sure his TBDs have cleared -- I am not comfortable with his losing his signals like this -- I know it is part of the whole Utility pattern but still ....


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Sunrise said:


> Faelan is definitely in a dip phase ... interesting.
> 
> . . . I will give Faelan another week or so, and then probably bring him in to the vet to make sure his *TBDs* have cleared -- I am not comfortable with his losing his signals like this -- I know it is part of the whole Utility pattern but still ....


Have to say this crossed my mind as I've read about how he's doing. Hoping it's just a training phase.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I just ordered a thermometer ... And lubricating stuff...the things that came up as sugggestions for accessories to the gel kind of had me wishing I was not at work!

Although my Co-workers are calling me the 'innocent' one given I created a new table (programs etc) to store the analysis for Tax related Wash Sales ... I thought WASHANAL made perfect sense and had to think hard about why I could hear the laughter and 'no freaking way' comments that started flying  the ads on my screen may well have given them pause 



TheZ's said:


> Have to say this crossed my mind as I've read about how he's doing. Hoping it's just a training phase.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Training didn't start out too well this morning with Nugget in his " I don't feel like it mood " doing a BIG arching slow go out that was baited. After Sunday's NQ I am not in the mood to put up with his lazy crap so we had a discussion and I put his leash back on and we did some heeling with very quick halts and Turns that didn't allow for lack of attention or his lazy mood sloppy heeling as the prong collar was getting a good workout it didn't take long before Nugget started seeing things my way after this we went back to the DJ exercise and surprise surprise straight go outs and the jumps taken on order. We wound up doing everything in utility at least twice and he got with my program. I do realize that exercises break and I can accept this and work thru it but my boy knows what I want and can do it all and do it well but he gets lazy and doesn't want to do it but I don't ask for much from him and I'm **** good to my dogs but there won't be any more accepting less than what I know he can do . After the utility I put Nugget back in his crate and got Hombre out. The pup was a little wild but I showed him the cheese on the stanchion and all that energy went into a very fast go out 3x right to the stanchion in the extended length ring about 60 feet and after eating his cheese sat as I called "sit" 2 of 3 times right there the third he also sat but walked in to me about 8-10' . Heeling and fig8 pretty nice just keeps improving some sits his butt was " out " but not much. For the very first time I attempted the ROHJ at 16 inches . Success !! He went over ( actually waited till sent ) picked up the dumbbell not very clean but he got it , turned around took the jump and with my saying FRONT he sat in front of me not as straight as I will require but he did the whole exercise which was a giant step forward. We repeated and were again successful. BJ with my calling over also nice and he went over the bar at 18 inches on the first over with me saying over and including a hand signal givin direction but of course he was in front of jump and I was only afoot or two to the side but definite progress . SFE well done and he also did the 3 minute sit stay and 5 minute down with me in the ring with him and 18 other dogs . This was off leash and the only Iittle flaw was he sniffed once but a no sniff order ended that. Very very good session with Hombre today and so to with Nugget once he understood his lazy stuff wasn't going to be tolerated anymore.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

This morning we worked an exercise from Clarity & Calm in a Chaotic World, 

Interesting results. Brady was a rock star! Towhee and Aedan kind of turned it into Impulse Control games since it involved slow delivery of treats. Faelan actually had the most reaction to the 'eye' portion of the game...

They all worked through the challenges and started enjoying the game (the eyes have it) within a minute or two.

No skill training this morning.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

It rained early this morning so I had to wait to train as I wanted to work with Nugget on go outs and DJ . After the yard dried it was terribly humid so Nugget did 3 go outs the first two right to the stanchion and he took the correct jumps very nice! I then baited the stanchion showing him the cheese on it then sent him with the " go out " order which he went quickly to collect his reward but at 6-8 ft.from the stanchion I said " SIT" and he spun around and did exactly that . Good boy!! Then I released him to get his reward followed up by my bringing him his "JACKPOT" Then signal were done twice with short heeling pattern ( getting very humid) once with verbal and hand signal the second time signal only well done. We are now back in the AC done for the day.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

> Titan. Yesterday I was told the lady that did so well at Champaign that her name was Lois . Might have been your friend.


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

Nuggetsdad said:


> > Titan. Yesterday I was told the lady that did so well at Champaign that her name was Lois . Might have been your friend.


Yep. There's only one Lois with a Golden in MN capable of those scores that I'm aware of. And she posted about it on Facebook.


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Congrats, Maureen! I know all about those interminable 3 and 5 minutes. I'm a little more relaxed with Maple, whose never NQ'd on groups in Open (cross my fingers, knock on wood, and I hope I'm not sorry I wrote that). During Alder's very long slog through Open A, however, I learned to dread those sits. We lost many a Q when he sank into a sleepy poodle puddle on the sit.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Yay!! Tonight it appears that Faelan has his signals back

:woot2::woot2::woot2::woot2::woot2::woot2::woot2::woot2:


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Was happy I left Jacks home today - he would have been miserable with the heat. >.< Bertie responded to being warm by breaking his sit stay right off the bat and then having one of his unique meltdowns (switching into guilt mode while breaking the stays left and right). So heeling after that was lackluster as well, I blame the heat. 

Fortunately the rest of the class (gloves, ROHJ, ROF, DJ, and Articles) were inspired. 

Bertie is now retrieving gloves! And has the idea of bringing them back properly and sitting without dropping at my feet - at least he did tonight.  

And was very proud of him acing articles - with this being probably the first time I've pulled them out in public away from home. 

Based on how he did with the heat - I'm so tempted to skip any other "outdoor" shows this summer and waiting until fall or late fall even for any obedience trials. It would be so tempting...


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## Titan1 (Jan 19, 2010)

Nuggetsdad said:


> > Titan. Yesterday I was told the lady that did so well at Champaign that her name was Lois . Might have been your friend.


Yep that would be Lois and Hydro. He turns 4 next month and they are a fantastic team!


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

Titan1 said:


> Yep that would be Lois and Hydro. He turns 4 next month and they are a fantastic team!


She was talking about it tonight at class. Sounds like she had quite a weekend, but that's about the norm for them from what I've seen. The dog is like a machine.


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

Open class tonight. I have nothing but good things to report. Great heeling, several skidding drops, broad jump great. Stays solid, etc. Just need a little more proofing on a couple things, some run throughs, and I think we're ready.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

This morning was testing/chaining day  For me, this means 1st shot counts, moving between a few exercises as in the ring and praise as in the ring. I set up the broad jump and the high jump with about 6 feet between them to also work some discrimination. For the broad jump I did reward by tossing their dumbbell 10 feet beyond their anticipated landing spot and having them front holding the dumbbell, bringing the High Jump into play. This was for the older dogs and seemed to be a common theme this past weekend  Heeling was a short pattern out & back with me carrying their dumbbell to proof heel position.

*Faelan:* Heeling very nice, no wrapping or forging to see his dumbbell. ROF beautiful, front slightly off, finish beautiful. ROHJ very very nice with an angled to the left short throw  Front and finish were nice. Broad Jump I tossed the DB too soon so his rear foot came down and nicked the last board so we did repeat and he did a great job. Jackpot by the back door.

*Towhee:* Heeling very nice - she did try to wrap on her about turn but corrected herself. ROF Very nice, front slightly off, finish very nice. ROHJ: straight throw but short - very nice, front & finish were perfect. BJ: set at 48 (she jump 44) she did great and seemed delighted to see her dumbbell being tossed - she eyed the high jump but came into front slightly angled with a nice finish (and hold & give). Run to the back door for her jackpot.

*Brady:* Very nice heeling. ROF perfect slightly off front with a perfect finish. ROHJ straight and short toss he nicked the jump on the way out (1st time ever) but retrieved his dumbbell and returned over the jump for a perfect front & finish. BJ was perfect and he too loved the dumbbell toss for another perfect front, hold, delivery and finish. We ran to the back door for his jackpot. Brady needs more chaining of exercises since after the ROF he seemed a bit slower.

*Aedan:* we worked some ROF including an (inadvertent) toss where the dumbbell landed between the house and a ladder that he really needed to work and think about -- he did it so we had a major party and treats. He worked for perhaps the first time with his treats set out where he could get them when we were not working specifically on Its Yer Choice/Zen/ other games that involve Impulse Control. He needed a brief reminder (my hand covering the treats) but did well after that.

Oh yeah, the treats were out and pre prepared for our jackpots for the older dogs as well.

Over all, very nice sessions  Yes the fronts need work but that was not my focus this morning which was chaining exercises in a formal manner -- and keeping flow going.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Rained very hard last night so the yard is wet and out of the question for training today but as luck would have it I'm the substitute instructor tonight so I'll get my training in the AC. Introduced a glove to Hombre this morning and told him " take it " which he did and then said out but this he had other ideas about and ran away with the glove in his mouth but a " come " got him back and I again said out but this time I had a hold of it and he again refused but a little squeeze of his jaw saying out and holding a treat for him and he released it. We repeated several times the " take it " and " out " with a treat for the release and by the fifth or sixth repetition he had the idea and was doing it very nicely. Lots of praise each time the desired action was taken by him and of course being a food driven golden he did well for the first time. We will work on Nugget's drop and DJ exercise tonight in particular with heeling if time allows.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

Storms last night, hot and humid today. Possible more storms to come. Nosework class last night for Raider and Tugg. Both dogs did great. Took Tugg out today for a little obedience training, too hot to do much. Looks like Raider may have the beginning of laryngeal paralysis, he will not be doing any nosework outside if the weather is like it is today, and of course, will wear his harness and not his collar. Even working last night in the air conditioned club, wearing his harness, he had some noisy breathing and a little cough, and tired quickly. We have a Nosework clinic on Saturday, outside. I may pull him from it. It isn't worth it to me to stress him out, I am worried about my boy, but am hoping for the best.


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

Did an open runthrough in the park. Both dumbbell fronts slightly off. Otherwise very good.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Morning off for the crew...I needed to have bloodwork done which has me leaving the house hungry an hour earlier so as to make it to work. Fasting so did not want to be handling food that could get into my system.

On the plus side, my almonds did not make a dent in my hunger so I had an 'every thing' bagel when I got to work...probably the first in several years...and I did not save even one bite for the dogs


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

it's raining-again! no training outside today, will maybe do articles later inside. also maybe put out some nosework hides inside too.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Rain again last night and this morning but still 13 people showed up. I'm fairly sure of the reason Nugget sometimes doesn't take a jump the first time I send him and that is I'm not holding the signal long enough. Last night after doing everything well in utility and he balked on the first jump so I reset and held the signal much longer and voila over he went. He really worked pretty nice and accurately and he should have considering he is extremely familiar with the bldg. and no one else was there which spells out no distractions . Still I'm happy with his effort and his work ethic was very nice last night being " up " but not wild like at the trial Sunday. 
Hombre too was with it last night only trying to run around the Bar jump but it's getting better. He took the Broad jump at 44 inches with me in front on the first time called to go " over " Hombres heeling and fig 8 very nice with good attention and as usual baited go outs at full ring length fast straight right to the stanchion and after his cheese was eaten turned and sat on order all 3x sent. ROHJ he went over the jump on the first over at 16 inches got the dumbbell but tried to return around it but after a reset and a second throw sending the dumbbell much farther away giving me time to run up to the jump so on his way back he would take it was successful. For only being 8 1/2 months old I'm pleased with his progress but I know what he does do is because of his rewards not his wanting to please me but he is learning no work no pay there isn't any free lunch.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I have mentioned the projects going on at my home and yesterday this batch was completed. The foundation was re stuccoed along with my back stairs which lead up to a landing with a stone wall opening to the back yard and the back sidewalk, the back garage had substantial repairs and was refinished, my front deck was refinished, storm doors damaged this past winter were replaced, and a few pieces of agility contact equipment were resurfaced with wood and painted among other things.

Anyway, here are a few shots, 1 of the back garage with one of my teeters along with my dog walk (8 feet sections rather than 12 feet), and my back stairs which were re stuccoed (but not yet dry); I found it amazing how most of the pictures I took included either outdoor living stuff (outdoor furniture, grills, small statues etc) or dog equipment LOL 

The Aframe showing in the back yard was not refinished although this past winter was not kind to it; the work was contracted for in the fall and I was already spending enough! Besides it has aluminum for the surfaces rather than wood so..

Here are portions of my dogs life ....


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

My yard is still too wet for jumping as I just found out while poop scooping which is upsetting to me because I wanted to work Nugget on the DJ exercise since tomorrow we are going to a trial and it is our biggest utility problem . We will do a little heeling in the street ( both dogs ) and go outs in the yard just no jumping for either boy.


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

Did some heeling, DOR, and lots of F&F this morning. I'm going to do the fun match tomorrow with no treats or corrections and see how it goes.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

Obedience class last night, we did mainly utility work. Started with articles, we are making progress, did some glove work. Then did heeling, which was a little sucky. Moving stand wasn't bad. Then did some go outs, he was pretty much a rock star there. Introduced directed jumping, and he seemed to catch on quick. Signals at the end, he nailed it. 
Today was our Nosework Clinic, I debated whether to leave Raider home, ended up taking him. It was a two part clinic, NW1 in the morning, NW2 and 3, afternoon, all vehicles. Tugg again was a rock star. I think he was the least experienced dog there, kept up and actually did better than some of the other dogs. 
Raider was in the afternoon, we crated in the air conditioned club, I noticed when we went outside, after a little bit of time in the heat and with just a little exercise, he coughed/gagged and had heavy breathing, and he got fatigued very easily too. It breaks my heart to see him get even a little distressed. I think I will have to talk to my vet next week, I need to get to the bottom of this.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

My dogs had social type events today and got all wet from swimming  I do not like working wet dogs (actually would be fine if *I* stayed dry LOL ) so, other than recalls, hanging around the back yard while I did a few things and a few sits when dogs were approaching, no training today.

It i kind of too hot to work them anyway


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## boomers_dawn (Sep 20, 2009)

We continue to train in a structured manner by going to classes and group.
Dee Dee has drop in for dummies and Rally class, which I LOVE.
Gladys is in field class for handling drills, which she loves. I feel we have found our areas of strengths and weaknesses and are comfortable doing what we're good at and love best.

Dee Dee continues to do great work, especially when there's FOOD involved, and works on her stays. Gladys continues to work on settling down and behaving.

We also had a fun social day yesterday, especially good for Dee Dee to work on her skittishness. I don't know where this skittishness came from. I think it happened after Boomer passed away. So I'm working on exposing her to new things, acting normal, and helping her feel ok around things that weird her out.

Like for example in Rally class yesterday, we were doing perfectly fine, then all of a sudden she looks up and notices these huge a/c units bracketed on the ceiling, that were there, running the whole time. All of a sudden she looks up and sees them and acts like aliens landed! So I sidled over for us to stand under them together, popped her some treats, told her she was good, and that was that.

Anyway, a local pet store has these parties - it's an extremely busy and noisy atmosphere. I've brought Dee Dee to them where she was too terrified to move. But we walked in the store yesterday and she acted completely normal! That made me happy. They had $5 nail trims so I brought both mine, and dog skool teechers dogs, Dee Dee did just fine with the whole situation, it was busy and chaotic but fun. 

I'm thinking about this because I looked at the show calendar for the year looking at Rally trials and debating .. she can execute the signs but we need to practice work ethic with no food in the hand, and the environmental / skittish factor. It just seems impossible to plan for every single items that would possibly freak Dee Dee out, so we'll continue to go out in public, to busy places, and get used to doing little exercises out there. 

Today is field group, everyone loves that and Dawn will get some much needed fresh air and exercise.


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

Did a qualifying Open run at the fun match. 197.5......1 point on heeling/figure 8 (she had a couple ADD moments, which is typical for the 1st exercise). 1/2 point on one front, 1/2 point on one finish, and 1/2 point on the sit stay, because she turned. We will be working in the swivel stay big time. Other than that, I couldn't be more pleased with how she worked. Everything was very fast.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

I skipped the obedience entry at the trial this weekend.... partly because I wanted to sleep an extra couple hours before going out to the showsite, but also because I have a couple things I want cleaned up before I do anything off leash in a trial (which pre-novice would have an off leash heel). 

Sitting outside the ring the week before and seeing a couple dogs mess up off leash pretty much did a ton to convince me that I didn't want to rush out there just yet. 

All the more so (lol) when I peeked out into the obedience ring (was grabbing a duty bag to clean up after one of my guys while passing by) and I recognized a few people out there who I normally want to impress. <= I totally cleaned up Jacks' poop with a "boy I'm glad I slept a couple hours more this morning" grin on my face. 

It does definitely remind me as far as what happens before the next puppy, as boring as heeling is... it really is a huge necessity for showing. Meaning that your dog may have everything else downpat from fronts to stays to retrieves to even utility level stuff, but you aren't going to get too far in the show ring if the heeling is dodgy. 

I am still considering entering 1-2 things in July and August though. I think we are very close and a few tweaks away from being where I want with heeling. 

*** I didn't scroll back to see if she posted here, but HUGE congrats to Jodie and little Phoenix who was perfect in his first ever obedience trial (BN).


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Today is another hot day. 

This afternoon I worked pieces for our first part of the sessions - I may go out again later.

*Go-Outs:* I set up some gates and used 2 of those pole thingees for mesh crates - to mark about a foot on either side of the center stanchion.

> Turn and sits inside the poles. Each dog did well.
> Marking and sending to the center stanchion using Genuine Bar Cheddar Cheese  Faelan, Towhee and Brady all were rewarded from the tub. Aedan was lured with a smattering on the center stanchion. Faelan 2 - 50 feet in increments; tight tolerance for a reward. Towhee 2-30 feet in increments with a more lenient tolerance for reward. Brady 2-50 feet in increments with a tight tolerance for reward. Aedan: 1-2 feet with my holding his collar -- clueless so far 

> *Directed Jumping *after removing poles. Setting the dog at the center stanchion in a sit (older dogs). Faelan, Towhee and Aedan all did very well, no excess body motion and full distances (jumps were set to 20 inches). Beautiful fronts, Towhee had some wide finishes. Aedan was put on a wait about 3 feet in front and 2 feet to the side of the each jump with a release to my hand on the other side - his jumps were set at 6 inches. Cute!!

*Signals:* Faelan had very nice heeling and gorgeous signals!! Gorgeous! Towhee had some troubles with the drop signal - she wanted to walk in (strange for her) but we worked through it. Brady had great heeling and he had troubles with the stand portion - but then he was fine.

Aedan was introduced to 'pocket hand' since he is now tall enough  He seemed quite a willing partner!

If I work them further today it will most likely involve bacon  But I've already showered twice today and am sitting here sweating so we may be done for the day.


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Congrats to Jodie and Phoenix. Great work!


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Go Phoenix  Great job Jodie!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

The extremely elusive sixth UDX leg is still elusive. Today's trial was at a sport complex with soccer turf which neither Nugget or I have ever worked on before. He did nice go outs and took the jumps losing 1/2 pt. on a front and a half on the second go out. MSFE no pts.lost. Articles where metal as always was first in the center Nugget got to smelling that turf and forgot what he was doing finally picking up a metal that was the wrong one returning to me me with a poor front not that it mattered now then got the second one the leather correctly . DR no pts.off finally signals 1 1/2 pts off with a slow sit a wide and a lag. Another UDX. Leg in the wind not a terrible run and the DJ exercise ( which was my concern ) he did pretty well and blowing the metal article was the last thing I was even thinking might go bad but it did. Open he screwed up a very nice run with you guessed it a ANTICIPATED FINISH , 3 pts after that I dint care that was the forth time in two trials he has done this and those 3 pointers in the B class' s are suicide. He did s+d and we left I don't know the exact score but it had to be in mid 190s I'll find out tomorrow when my instructor partner come to club as she still had her open run to do. 22 dogs entered 19 showed 8 qualified lots of NQ from people I know to be great trainers with very good dogs even the judged remarked about the amount of NQ dogs because she is also an exhibitor and judge for many years and I know she knew just about everyone there.


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

Did signals, articles and go outs in the house this morning. Going to start alternating utility and open class.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

We've had between 4-5 inches of rain and more coming so my yard is totally out of use and will be for sometime as water is standing on top of the grass. Club tonight and I'm not expecting too many people because of the Hawks game tonight and storms coming in. I'm only taking the pup to training because he hasn't been trained for 3 days and Nugget showed yesterday ( but not very well )!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Got our score from the open b class yesterday 
ROF-3
DOR-0
ROHJ-1/2
BROAD JUMP-1 
FIG8 +HEELING -2
A 199 won the class
Tonight I left Nugget home and what a good decision that turned out to be. Our bldg because of the rain and humidity had very very WET floors and matting totally un safe for jumping a dog and the rain came down in buckets and still is as I type this even closing down the interstate hwy. a terrible storm . Hombre before it got too bad did 3 recalls 3 ROF a nice fig8 and decent heeling along with 3 go outs to a stanchion and 3 to the wall all baited all very fast all straight all but one sitting me on my order. We also did a few f+f a very nice 3 minute sit stay along with 7-8 other dogs and he also did the 5 minute down stay. Both stays on a flexi because the big overhead door was open and I don't trust him yet to recall if he broke and took off because the bldg is in a fairground with a LOT of traffic going by. My 6:00 class had 1 person show up none for advanced only 5 people showed for graduation of beginners class . Between the lousy weather and the Hawks game on few showed up tonight including 3 instructors that were absent


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Yesterday was a review of videos of classes 

This morning was a quick session (I needed a double workout based on my glucose meter reading so training time was cut short). Everything outdoors is very wet so we worked indoors with an inadvertent proof 

Aedan did some pocket hand short heeling, some moving sits with my moving backwards and some fold-back downs.

Faelan, Towhee and Brady all did pocket hand heeling followed by signals - the proof? I set them up facing the mirrors and while Faelan did his signals, Towhee & Brady had problems - then I realized they were facing the mirrors which may have caused some confusion -- note to self: practice with them facing the mirrors more often.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

I sure wish Nugget would show like he trains , another very good session with both boys today. Hombre today broke on the 5 min.down stay with only a few seconds till I reached him as we were returning to our dogs when a Belgium Shep. Got upset with a person walking in and broke barking very nastily in a warning way. Oh well stuff happens. The pup at 16 inches did a pretty nice job on the ROHJ today going over and BACK with the bell in his mouth his pickup still a work in progress like his fronts but for only doing this possibly a dozen times I'm pretty pleased with the progress . I also set him in front of the Bar Jump at a angle and holding his beloved can of cheese sent him over with the hand signal and verbal twice both times successful on the first order. BJ taken at 44 inches with me in front but today at the line of the edge of the boards and looking at 90 degrees to it. His heeling and fig8 nice only a couple sits with his butt out but plenty of attention . ROF fast but his pickups getting better BUT STILL not clean , but his enthusiasm kinda makes up for it. Nuggets work both in utility and open very nice today even his fronts for the most part were straight. Finish's are not being done at all because I'm trying to kill that anticipation of finish's which he has done 4 x in 2 trials. Pretty good session today happy with both boys work today. Almost forgot Hombre did 3 beautiful go outs that were fast and straight but the big news is his second was not baited and this was his first time without his cheese and it too was fast straight and all the way out approximately 60 ft. Yes!!


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

LOL !! The dogs are zooming and playing and having a grand old time. So, this morning they get to be dogs, just dogs enjoying themselves. No training LOL


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

Raining-Again  no outside training, maybe some article training later


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Phoenix and I have been focusing on finishes this week. Stand for exam and finishes are his two weakest novice areas. 

I've also been working on core strength on Phoenix and Flip the last couple of weeks. 

We've been dealing with daily rain here, so no heeling practice aside from what I can fit in my living room


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

I just moved the mirror from my bedroom door into the livingroom so we can work finishes in front of a mirror. It's very possible I'll leave the house with two different shoes on, or my skirt tucked into my underwear, but at least I'll be able to make sure our finishes are straight :


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Aww, just check your clothing in the living room before you leave


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

This morning, to mix things up a little, we worked some inside using the dining roon, kitchen and hallways 

Starting with the older dogs on a sit stay, I worked some heeling (pocket hand, short 3-6 steps) with Aedan. Towhee broke! Guess she couldn't stand hearing the praise but not being able to see it so ha!! another thing to proof. Reset all the older dogs for a minute sit stay while 'working' Aedan.

Then Faelan got some heads up heeling starts, starts from a fast, starts from a slow, signals and DOR - his first drop I had him repeat since he took 2 steps forward after the cue.

Towhee followed, with heads up heeling starts, fast starts slamming into slows to fast to halts. A few about turns and a straight recall followed by a DOR. She did well 

Brady was up next, for head up starts, starts with a slow, about turns, a few pivots back (ala glove #3), 2 stand for exams and a straight recall -- he did well too  With Brady it is mostly about making sure he knows he rules!! He did great and his tail was up and his face was in a relaxed smile the entire session.

It was fun!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

It is still too wet in our yard and looking like more rain ( which we do NOT NEED ) but we will go to SCKC this afternoon . This training session will probably be the last before the trial on Sunday unless it dries up and that's not likely.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Training tonight went very well at least with Nugget. Utility was very well done and had it been a trial he would have been in high 190s even his fronts except for one was dead on . Jumps and go outs done on first order and he went to the stanchion each time albeit with his little arc but coming back straight. Hombre worked fairly well other than balking on the ROHJ 2x so I had to lower it. We also had a problem with the bar jump wanting to go around but I was at fault because I tried with to much angle and he just isn't far enough along yet. A suggestion given to me for the pickup of the dumbbell is working , putting the. Bell in a corner where ther isn't room to push it all over going at full speed has forced him to pick it up without his usual shoving it several feet and getting a far better pickup not perfect but vastly improved. He also retrieves of the glove on a flexi which each send was a success as far as getting it but once he had it he didn't want to let go of it again . This dog in certain exercises forces me to get more forceful than I like but offering to trade a treat for the dumbbell or glove doesn't work with this dog but he will eventually understand he MUST give it up. Hombres go outs again just great.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Well as Larry the cable guy says " git er done " I did . Got the grass cut which was already 6-8 inches high and it was cut last Sat. picked up poop and found even more after cutting grass and then worked with Nugget doing articles twice with each one at a different spot in the pile . He did a good job finding making the turn sitting and briskly going out . The only thing not perfect were his fronts not nearly as good as last night. Gloves were next all done correctly doing 3-1-2 fronts with my helping were better than articles were. Signal exercise he did as well as he could my walking in the grass is terrible but the down sit recall all correct no mistakes. MSFE perfect!! Finally our problem exercise which wasn't a problem today beautiful go outs and both jumps taken on the first " over " order . A third baited go out was done with a very very large gob of cheese on the stanchion which was his reward and also a direct route for his go outs to be done. 
We then did 2 ROHJ good but fronts off and 3 ROF again fronts close but no cigar. Finishing off wit the DOR which a straight 2 with hand signals and a verbal all fast and he did manage a couple fronts. It looks like RAIN AGAIN so I don't know about Hombre training today.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

so far today:

Aedan went to drop in rally where we focused on 1) focus on me and 2) working in a class environment; he did well  Lots of pocket hand and rewarding - he was a really good pup!

Faelan went to drop in obedience where we did portions of Open and Utility -- he had a few nose down events while on the down stay and he kind of followed his nose while working the article pile but overall once he warmed up he did fairly well.

We came home and Brady got to search out 2 bags of treats in his kiddie pool filled with 300 balls. When I picked up the balls there were no treats remaining so he got them all 

Now its raining, so I am not really sure what is up next ... I have decided that Faelan will most likely not be entered in more UDX trials until Towhee is safely tucked away at Barb's -- she is definitely becoming attractive and Faelan's nose is too active for my liking -- now I suppose I could train through it, but since he is hopefully due for more studly type dates, why would I?


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

Tugg finally earned his CGC last night, and we start open/utility class on Monday night. Hopefully I can keep him focused enough so he doesn't have any meltdowns in a group class. I was telling somebody today, this dog is trained almost all the way thru utility, what gets in his way is his impulsiveness, I think of it as his losing his mind at times. Oh, and I got his new gloves in the mail today, got them from Just Right Gloves, white gloves with red cuffs. Never had a set of gloves this nice, kind of pricey but just beautiful. I almost am a little embarrassed to be happy and bragging a bit that he earned his CGC, I know it is just the beginning, he actually had a little trouble on the meet and greet, wanted to play with the pretty golden girl on the end of the leash, but on the second try he got it. I've said it before, and will say it again, if you don't laugh with dog like Tugg, you cry, and life is too short to cry about things like him being joyful and spontaneous.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Congratulations on the CGC!! That is huge


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Big congratulations to you and Tugg on the CGC!!!! It was not the easiest thing at all for Finley. She has very "happy feet" and meeting people was tough when she had to contain herself...still is at times. Banshee has had her issues too, just saying, I think it is a great accomplishment and worth a brag!!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

The streak is broken UDX leg #6 is in the bag. Nugget got third in utility with a 195 1/2 and then got fourth in open with a 195 but had to win a run off to get it. He should of had first place in open but he again auto-finished on the ROF. A very good day today but not as many teams as I would have liked to seen but lots of NQ in both class's.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Congratulations !!!



Nuggetsdad said:


> The streak is broken UDX leg #6 is in the bag. Nugget got third in utility with a 195 1/2 and then got fourth in open with a 195 but had to win a run off to get it. He should of had first place in open but he again auto-finished on the ROF. A very good day today but not as many teams as I would have liked to seen but lots of NQ in both class's.


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Good for Tugg! I'm not sure my Maple could get a CGC. Sometimes, it's a battle to get her to ring gate as she is trying to do all her unauthorized Meet and Greets.



my4goldens said:


> Tugg finally earned his CGC last night, and we start open/utility class on Monday night. Hopefully I can keep him focused enough so he doesn't have any meltdowns in a group class. I was telling somebody today, this dog is trained almost all the way thru utility, what gets in his way is his impulsiveness, I think of it as his losing his mind at times. Oh, and I got his new gloves in the mail today, got them from Just Right Gloves, white gloves with red cuffs. Never had a set of gloves this nice, kind of pricey but just beautiful. I almost am a little embarrassed to be happy and bragging a bit that he earned his CGC, I know it is just the beginning, he actually had a little trouble on the meet and greet, wanted to play with the pretty golden girl on the end of the leash, but on the second try he got it. I've said it before, and will say it again, if you don't laugh with dog like Tugg, you cry, and life is too short to cry about things like him being joyful and spontaneous.


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Way to go, Nugget!



Nuggetsdad said:


> The streak is broken UDX leg #6 is in the bag. Nugget got third in utility with a 195 1/2 and then got fourth in open with a 195 but had to win a run off to get it. He should of had first place in open but he again auto-finished on the ROF. A very good day today but not as many teams as I would have liked to seen but lots of NQ in both class's.


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Today was our first show since Maple finished her Utility title and got her first UDX leg. We were looking for OTCh points, UDX legs, or OM pts. We didn't get any of those. NQ in both Utility and Open.

In Utility, my focus the last month has been on her going all the way out and sitting on the go-out. Today, to her credit, she did run all the way out until I told her to Turn, but she went to the right corner on the first and left corner on the second. On the second, she needed a second Sit command (big disappointment, since I've been working on adding value to the sit with lots of treats. We lost 8 points on go-outs, but that didn't NQ us. About a week ago, Maple started getting the #2 glove when sent for the #1 glove. I've been working gloves 2 or 3 times a day, trying to resolve that issue, and sitll, the morning I left for the trial, she went for the middle glove on a first attempt. So, I cringed when I saw that the glove today was #1. Lo and behold, she went straight and fast for #1. What she NQ'd on was the metal article. She actually picked it up then put it down and brought back a different article. Don't know what was going on there. After the trial, there were 5-mnute ring rental training sessions, and she had absolutely no trouble on the articles. Oh, well.

In Open, she had a rare NQ on the DOR. I'm not sure she's ever NQ'd the DOR. A dog yelped behind her at the same time I gave the drop signal, and she sat and looked behind her, but I think I also gave a tentative, maybe unclear signal. Bummer, because I think we might have won the class. The winning score was 193. 

The good aspect of the day was that Maple seemed to be feeling pretty good. Travel stress is a big issue with her. I'm trying all home-made, easily digested food (mostly burger and white rice) laced with added electrolytes. No diarrhea today, just a bit of a soft stool and she was "up" for the classes, maybe a little too "up." at times.

Alder, the poodle boy, got his 13th RAE leg with two 2nd places. 

We have 2 more trial days here in Missoula.


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Congratulations to Nugget and Alder!!! 

This week has been pretty lame as far as our training goes....just haven't done a whole lot. Glad to say I have tomorrow off and it's Finley's turn for class. Class was cancelled last week, so I'm looking forward to going . Which probably means Banshee will go "somewhere" with me during the day tomorrow, as Finley will go at night. And they both need baths, ect so my day off will be filled with doing stuff with them which is just fine by me.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Yesterday's performance from Nugget earned him 2 Mc Donald's burgers and today I'll let him stay home and relax. We have storms in the weather forecast and if the floors at our rental bldg.are anything like last weeks super humid rain soaked mess I couldn't jump him anyway so he gets to relax but not so for Hombre lots of things we can train for and to do better than what we are doing which goes for both of us. I have class tonight and now that the Hawks won the cup a few more people will probably show up both club members and walk in's. I changed dog food this weekend from Blue to Fromms and Hombre stool already seemed firmer don't know if the new food which is mixed 50/50 with Blue Buffalo is the reason but so far on poop patrol no really soft piles.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

> Palouse dogs I don't know if your signal was unclear to your dog but very recently I had the same experience twice blowing 2 UDX LEGS . I have never before NQ on the DOR with any of my 4 utility dogs almost everything else at one time or another but not the DOR. I realized my confidence was overrated by me and I screwed Nugget up so I have now switched to a firm verbal " DOWN" and the last 2 trials have been a success on this exercise. I really like the signal better and will more than likely go back to it after he earns his UDX but the truth is a dog can always hear your verbal order but if their attention is taken away even momentarily they can still hear you and get their act together again and save the exercise.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I am feeling a reluctance for precision type activities  so until my attitude changes, I will most likely be working quick, fun type of things...I have video of this morning's building value for jumping which I might post ... I find the strengths and weaknesses between the dogs fascinating


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Hombre who is already bigger than uncle Nugget almost took me down as we did a very very long recall ( about 80-90 feet ) away he came in fast too fast and couldn't stop crashing into me. I want drive and speed but this was a bit over the top. 
LOL


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Today at the Missoula show got off to a miserable start. The A/C was broken and it was sweltering inside. Novice was first, followed by Open then Utility, which is kind of unusual these days. Open B didn't start until 10. By then, Maple was clearly feeling the heat. She moped through the heeling and, worse, headed for the exit a couple of times. We lost 6 "miscellaneous" points because I had trouble calling her back. We somehow Q'd with a wretched score in the low 180s. 

Shortly before Utility, the A/C repairman got the A/C working. I also realized there was a hose with a sprayer outside the building and I completely drenched Maple, twice. She worked a lot better. Her go-outs were perfectly straight and all the way to the gates, but she did not sit on the turn either time (Aargh! 3 points for each missed sit!) Somehow, we managed to place 2nd for our very first every OTCH points. 2 whole points! It's a start! 2 down, 98 to go. Also a 2nd UDX leg. 

The judge had a VERY sharp pencil on the heeling. I was sure the dog that beat us, Kathy Kail's curly coat, had at least a 195, but the judge gave her a 189 (or 189.5, I'm not sure.) We got a 184.5. We beat the 3rd place dog by a whopping 0.5 point. The judge really hit that dog hard on heeling. 

Tomorrow is the last day of the show. I'm so releived I have something in the bag to show for 4 nights in a hotel, 3 days of annual leave, and very long drive. We will be working hard to resolve that pesky turn and sit problem before the next show in a month.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

wicked wicked storms tonight. But before they hit we had our first utility class. Tugg did great. There are only two people enrolled in this class, the other lady didn't show up, so we had an hour of private training. Did have distractions, in the other ring there was a rally class going on. There is an open class before ours, so when they are done, we start our class with combined sits and downs. Tugg nailed them, we even did out of sights. Then in our class we ran thru all the utility exercises. I have got to do better heeling, I am such a clumsy handler, this dog could be brilliant if he had someone better than me, but he loves me, and I love him and we both are having fun and that
is the only thing that is important.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Congrats on the UDX leg and first OTCh points 





PalouseDogs said:


> Today at the Missoula show got off to a miserable start. The A/C was broken and it was sweltering inside. Novice was first, followed by Open then Utility, which is kind of unusual these days. Open B didn't start until 10. By then, Maple was clearly feeling the heat. She moped through the heeling and, worse, headed for the exit a couple of times. We lost 6 "miscellaneous" points because I had trouble calling her back. We somehow Q'd with a wretched score in the low 180s.
> 
> Shortly before Utility, the A/C repairman got the A/C working. I also realized there was a hose with a sprayer outside the building and I completely drenched Maple, twice. She worked a lot better. Her go-outs were perfectly straight and all the way to the gates, but she did not sit on the turn either time (Aargh! 3 points for each missed sit!) Somehow, we managed to place 2nd for our very first every OTCH points. 2 whole points! It's a start! 2 down, 98 to go. Also a 2nd UDX leg.
> 
> ...


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Last night, while driving home from work, I was thinking about some spare parts for the dog houses – the floor boards made of cedar planking and wondering how they would work for fronting platforms.


This morning we worked outside first, some laser finger flowing into front crosses, followed by signals for the older dogs – with Faelan, I lined him up facing up the incline with my setting up behind the branches of a tree – he did great! Brady and Towhee were both reluctant to go down so we worked it.


Then we went inside and worked fronts with the new platform!! Aedan is being shaped, but the older dogs appeared to loved it !!


No precision work, just games


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

First off, every one is okay!

Yesterday we had some 'weather', with storms and winds blowing to 90+ miles per hour. So, last night and this morning we had yard cleanup/pick up sticks rather than training.

well, my tomato plants may be a casualty... But dogs and people are fine


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## boomers_dawn (Sep 20, 2009)

Congratulations Nugget and Maple. And Tugg on your CGC! That is a huge accomplishment, especially for an impulsive dog, as you described. 

I have one too, she's so good and smart - she brought me one of my shoes from my work bag, I told her to go get the other one and she did - from another room at the other end of the house! But doesn't like to stay or be at distance .. "mommeeeeeeeee!" so I'm in the same boat, laugh, enjoy, have fun. 

Dee Dee went to Rally class (LOVE IT!) and I took them both to field class. Gladys worked on a very hard concept, white mixed with orange bumpers, pick up the orange first. She did me proud all except the only one the teacher was watching, she wouldn't line up then went for the wrong one and gave me a whistle refusal. Next, he threw some "poison" bumpers (the fun exciting one flying thru the air, you "no" them off it and make them pick up the boring one already put out farther away). She did amazeballs! Dee Dee did some lining drills, I made everything easy for her. She did amazeballs too! I stopped doing handling drills with her because she's been working on "steady" so she has to wait for her name before going. Now I notice she's extended it to the handling drills, when I direct her, she won't move. She's waiting for me to release her. I remember going through the same thing with Gladys. It's amazing the way they learn. Love them. 
We were entered in a HT but both are in season now so we have to scratch. Rally teacher said we could come to class in panties but I volunteered to make sandwiches for HT and said I would still honor my committment  
But I hate missing Rally class :-(

Tonight is drop in, can't wait to bring Dee Dee in her "Fancy Nancys" (feminine panty with polka dots and pink bow on heiney)


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Ahh, thanks for reminding me! I just ordered a larger size of Fancy Nancy's for Ms Towhee . She has lost her girlishly fit & tight little figure...now needing a matronly type of fit. I almost went for the style made just for labs LOL but decided she still does have some tuck up.


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Sunrise said:


> Ahh, thanks for reminding me! I just ordered s larger size of Fancy Nancy's for Ms Towhee . She has lost her girlishly fit & tight little figure...


Where do you get them and what size? Gracie & I haven't been too happy with the ones I've gotten.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Fancynancys.com  they have a size chart. Your girl would probably be a large (40 to 70 pounds). Towhee only weighs about 60 but I think needs a larger size now so they fit comfortably around her loosened waist/mammary area.


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Tuesday was day 3 of the Missoula show. The A/C wasn't working again. Maple did okay, not great, in Open, which was first before it got too hot. Another missed sit on the heeling and lagging on the outside circle of the Figure 8. Had a 191.5 and second place of about 9 dogs. Good for 6 OM points, but only the first place dog got any OTCH points. I meant to hose her down before Utility because it was getting hotter, but got distracted showing Alder in Rally. 

Utility was a disaster. Maple did things she's never done before. On DR, she went out and picked up the correct, #3 glove, and then returned by taking a detour and jumping over the high jump on the way back. Huh!?? This is a dog that hates to jump. Why, on a hot day, would she suddently decide to take a jump she didn't have to? Then, on the articles, she had no trouble finding the correct ones, and she clearly knew she was correct (no hesitation or dropping, or second guessing) and she plodded back to me both times as though she had 10 pound weights on her feet. On the go-outs, no sit on either one. She took a step towards the high before I gave the command, and I was sure that was an NQ, but either the judge didn't see it or thought she did it at the same time as the command because she gave us a Q with a score of 170. My lowest qualifying score ever! 

And the best part: We got High Combined as the sole qualifier in both Open and Utility. 

It was Maple's 6th birthday. Talk about a gift....


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

AARGH - I have a squeaky boy! 

His name is Brady and no Brady, your mama will most definitely not be getting real friendly with you! Let her be. 

On a more serious note -- I just got my entries for a Sho n Go this weeked 

Faelan in Open & Utility
Brady in Novice

Towhee is on vacation from pre-entered events since she could go into season at any time now and Aedan -- well he may actually be going


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## MaureenM (Sep 20, 2011)

Happy Birthday Maple!! And congratulations on the Q's and points. So high combined is for dogs that enter both open and utility on the same day? If there were 2 dogs that qualified do they average points from each to see what the high combined is? I briefly read over the requirements for UDX, OM, and OTCH the other day, but need to look at it again. 

Finley did 1 broad jump, 2 retrieves over the high, and 2 retrieves on flat. The hold on the dumbbell needs work she's getting sloppy with it. So I'll work on that separately. Then we did a short amount of heeling and worked on signals from a distance. The sit signal is new to us but she seemed to catch on quick. Banshee did some heeling, quarter and half turns, and then pivots to work on fronts. It was pretty warm out so I kept it short.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Happy Birthday Maple !!

Congrats on the UDX leg & OM points ... it sounds like it was pretty hot so a QQ is pretty good 

That reminds me to go check OM point schedule(s)...



PalouseDogs said:


> Tuesday was day 3 of the Missoula show. The A/C wasn't working again. Maple did okay, not great, in Open, which was first before it got too hot. Another missed sit on the heeling and lagging on the outside circle of the Figure 8. Had a 191.5 and second place of about 9 dogs. Good for 6 OM points, but only the first place dog got any OTCH points. I meant to hose her down before Utility because it was getting hotter, but got distracted showing Alder in Rally.
> 
> Utility was a disaster. Maple did things she's never done before. On DR, she went out and picked up the correct, #3 glove, and then returned by taking a detour and jumping over the high jump on the way back. Huh!?? This is a dog that hates to jump. Why, on a hot day, would she suddently decide to take a jump she didn't have to? Then, on the articles, she had no trouble finding the correct ones, and she clearly knew she was correct (no hesitation or dropping, or second guessing) and she plodded back to me both times as though she had 10 pound weights on her feet. On the go-outs, no sit on either one. She took a step towards the high before I gave the command, and I was sure that was an NQ, but either the judge didn't see it or thought she did it at the same time as the command because she gave us a Q with a score of 170. My lowest qualifying score ever!
> 
> ...


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

High Combined is the highest total score from Utility B and Open B. On Tuesday, there were 3 Qs in Open and 3 in Utility, but Maple was the only dog with a QQ. You don't get any OM or OTCH points for HC. It's more bragging rights than anything. You get a UDX leg, but you always get a UDX for a QQ (assuming you have a UD).



MaureenM said:


> Happy Birthday Maple!! And congratulations on the Q's and points. So high combined is for dogs that enter both open and utility on the same day? If there were 2 dogs that qualified do they average points from each to see what the high combined is? I briefly read over the requirements for UDX, OM, and OTCH the other day, but need to look at it again.
> 
> Finley did 1 broad jump, 2 retrieves over the high, and 2 retrieves on flat. The hold on the dumbbell needs work she's getting sloppy with it. So I'll work on that separately. Then we did a short amount of heeling and worked on signals from a distance. The sit signal is new to us but she seemed to catch on quick. Banshee did some heeling, quarter and half turns, and then pivots to work on fronts. It was pretty warm out so I kept it short.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

hmm, no hiking for the next little bit; mama bear and 3 cubs are out and about in my immediate area. I'll probably need to be very aware even while training outside.


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## BriGuy (Aug 31, 2010)

Sunrise said:


> hmm, no hiking for the next little bit; mama bear and 3 cubs are out and about in my immediate area. I'll probably need to be very aware even while training outside.


Be careful! Bears have become more and more common over the past 5 years here in the western suburbs of Boston. There was an article in then Boston Globe several days ago - the population in Massachusetts has gone from 30 in 1985 to 4500+ today.

Last night's class was great! We were doing some prep work for figure 8's, which meant heeling while weaving between a long line of cones. Hazel did so well and I was so proud of her. She has gotten big enough that I can easily deliver a treat to her without bending over and getting off my rhythm, so we don't look so awkward hopefully.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Grins!!

Yes, Aedan is now tall enough that I am starting some heel work with him - still only pocket hand and just a few steps, but his nose is approximately where it will be when actually heeling and I don't provide a hunched and bent over picture to him - or that ever so attractive bent kneed waddling walk that looks nothing like the final heeling picture LOL

Yes, I have a lot of respect for bears, even more so when cubs are involved. I have had dogs decide to chase them so now I just stay out of the woods when I have warning there are cubs around. Without cubs, they seem to just want to be left alone.



BriGuy said:


> Be careful! Bears have become more and more common over the past 5 years here in the western suburbs of Boston. There was an article in then Boston Globe several days ago - the population in Massachusetts has gone from 30 in 1985 to 4500+ today.
> 
> Last night's class was great! We were doing some prep work for figure 8's, which meant heeling while weaving between a long line of cones. Hazel did so well and I was so proud of her. She has gotten big enough that I can easily deliver a treat to her without bending over and getting off my rhythm, so we don't look so awkward hopefully.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

Tugg, Monday night Obedience class, Tuesday night Rally and Wednesday night Nosework. I never used a clicker before, my instructor showed me her method of teaching go outs with a clicker. I love it. I am still clumsy with the clicker but will continue to use it. Tuesday night Rally was a good class with Tugg, we did a couple run thrus but mainly entrance to the ring with attention. Last night was Nosework with Tugg and Raider. The heat we are having is affecting Raider, and I am noticing fatigue, heavy breathing, and that gagging cough. We will continue to do the class with him, but I think only for fun. And I think it's time to do the test required to diagnose if he does in fact have laryngeal paralysis. It brings me to tears to see my beautiful boy have problems.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Just got the internet back after 21/2 days of course I had to get u-verse at added cost but what can you do . I'm subbing tonight so the boys will get a little work then. The rain is really messing up training we even had to cancel Mon.class and it is getting dark again . I don't even have time now to catch up on the posts. Hopefully tomorrow and yes my opinion of phone co.is pretty low.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

PalouseDogs said:


> Today at the Missoula show got off to a miserable start. The A/C was broken and it was sweltering inside. Novice was first, followed by Open then Utility, which is kind of unusual these days. Open B didn't start until 10. By then, Maple was clearly feeling the heat. She moped through the heeling and, worse, headed for the exit a couple of times. We lost 6 "miscellaneous" points because I had trouble calling her back. We somehow Q'd with a wretched score in the low 180s.
> 
> Shortly before Utility, the A/C repairman got the A/C working. I also realized there was a hose with a sprayer outside the building and I completely drenched Maple, twice. She worked a lot better. Her go-outs were perfectly straight and all the way to the gates, but she did not sit on the turn either time (Aargh! 3 points for each missed sit!) Somehow, we managed to place 2nd for our very first every OTCH points. 2 whole points! It's a start! 2 down, 98 to go. Also a 2nd UDX leg.
> 
> ...



Congratulations WTG!!!


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Sunrise said:


> First off, every one is okay!
> 
> Yesterday we had some 'weather', with storms and winds blowing to 90+ miles per hour. So, last night and this morning we had yard cleanup/pick up sticks rather than training.
> 
> well, my tomato plants may be a casualty... But dogs and people are fine



Glad everybody is alright.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Nugget worked well tonight and would have qualified in both class's with nice scores. My challenge dog Hombre was a challenge AGAIN heeling fig 8pretty good but then he started to decide what he would and wouldn't do. So our battle for dominance began the little hard head is by no means a stupid dog but he is one very stubborn one..I do enjoy a good battle though so we shall see.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

It rained AGAIN all afternoon and evening into this morning which of course is making my yard a soggy mess. Worked with Hombre aka Challenge this morning and I'm kinda pleased with most of his work. Heeling and fig8 extremely well done especially for a not quite 9 month old in doing 3 full patterns only one sit was a tiny bit out all straight and fast. His abouts and fast and slows in heel position I'm very pleased with this aspect of his training. Now the other side of the coin three recalls all fast but not one front was straight.ROF improving but still he over runs the dumbbell and bringing it back still tends to drop it anticipating getting his reward and the fronts poor. This morning the bar at 14 inches sitting in front of the jump and me 10-12 feet on other side waving his can of cheese he went over 2 of 3 attempts on the first " over " the failed one no reward and then after a reset he did it realizing he wasn't going to get a reward unless he jumped the bar. I tried to do the DIRECTED RETRIEVE with only one glove but the little stinker would not sit stay long enough and just ran and got the glove so after 3 tries because my flexi was inside I just decided not to try this till I can work it with control which I didn't have this morning. On a non training note last evening after going out to potty 10 minutes earlier he came flying in my room and jumped on my bed which he does on a regular basis but this time he made circles on top of the bed and then PEED. I just love having to wash bed linens at night instead of relaxing and watching T.V. but at least I caught him in the act and stripped the bed before it got to the mattress. Almost forgot 3 very nice very fast very straight go outs at 60 ft with the first un-baited and he sat on order at least a little redeeming act on his part. Nugget will get his training in a little later today but jumps may not be done depending on how much it dries up .


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Today we did a Sho n Go 

*Faelan* in Utility did a really nice job - I did bring a tug toy to reward about turns  We had glove #1, and while he was eying #2 he went straight out & back for #1. MSFE; perfect. SD: a bit of mouthing but other than that really nice. Signals - perfect! Go Outs; I repeated the 2nd one since it was to the right perhaps a point's worth. Jumps were good as were his fronts. I finished to him mostly.

*Brady:* Wow!! He rocked Novice. No signs of stress. His heeling has a few wides and one sit on the heel free was sightly butt out. Figure 8; gorgeous. SFE, gorgeous. Recall straight, fast to a beautiful front and a nice finish. Sits & Downs were solid even with people going in to correct their dogs. Best of all; he was happy, alert, focused and to all appearances loving it even with the judge very close.

*Towhee:* is not in season yet, so I put her in Open in Faelan's place. She did a really nice and only attempted to visit the judge once  Heeling was beautiful. Figure 8; I love her figure 8! DOR perfect although her finish was slightly butt out: fast drop with an eager yet relaxed look for the 2nd portion. I threw her dumbbell for the ROF in line with the plane of the jump and she did a beautiful job of directly out and back even with her turn bring the HJ into play (I tossed there deliberately). Front was sligtly off and I finished to her. ROHJ - I deliberately tossed slightly to the left of the jump stanchion and again she did a beautiful, beautiful job fronting nicely so I released her to her DB rather than finishing her. Broad jump: awesome!

*Aedan:* yes baby Aedan  He was crated in a corner and we worked some crate games and some 2-5 step heeling games with pocket hand, some fronts and a few find heel position games. He did not go into a ring of course but he was relaxed and focused whenever he was out of the crate. More interested in working than with the people or dogs all around him; Just the way I love 

ETA: And lest I forget!! I met up with a few other FDSA students as well -- its always great to be with like minded folks


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Yesterday Nuggets work went well both open and utility about all that was flawed were a couple f+f . This morning we did a short heeling and signal exercise plus 4 go outs . The first two un- baited which he did beautifully and took the correct jumps then a baited one that I let him lick his cheese then told him to sit and then a BAITED ONE with a JACKPOT AMOUNT on the stanchion which I let him get to about 4-5 feet from and gave a strong verbal SIT which he turned and sat for me . I then released him to get his reward . " Good Boy " . And then Hombre who was only in a screwing around mode . Overrunning the dumbbell twice and not waiting even though he was told too. I tried to get him to take the bar twice both failed attempts , the puppy I don't want to and I'm running away from you stuff came out so no cheese and I went in the house and just left him by himself . He followed shortly but I'm not in the game playing mood so no training for " MY CHALLENGE" dog today.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

After a couple weeks off from training for one reason or other, had a fun match this morning with Bertie.... 

With Novice - we would have qualified with probably points off for a "no sit" to start off with. I did a very quick and firm correction putting him in a sit (so glad he gave me the opportunity to correct a no-sit!) and the rest of the session was perfect with very nice sits. 

Oh down stay was problematic because he's very interested in girl dogs at the moment. *face-palm* The trainer next to me was very nice and understanding when Bertie wiggled himself crooked to make goo-goo eyes at her girl. I let it go rather than cause more distractions for the dogs, but we are definitely going to get back into training mode on stays with other dogs. I'm happy he's not having separation anxiety about me being FAR FAR AWAY like I dealt with Jacks, but I seriously don't want to have a dog who even knows there's dogs in the lineup with him. >.< 

Open run through - I don't think he did that bad, but the lady running us through kept stopping us to "correct" something or zero in on something she noticed. On the heel free portion, she didn't notice a change of pace from Bertie when I slowed down. He just started forging a little. She stopped the heeling pattern to set us up and put us through another slow and he did it correctly that time. Other thing she zeroed in on was his slouchy sits. He's apparently doing something really weird with his front legs when finishing or sitting in heel position. It's not just the puppy squat sits that he does with his back legs, but he's also sticking his left leg way out. She was trying to figure out if that would cost us points in the ring. <= I'll be honest I don't know if we've had a judge pick on that in BN. But maybe with BN they don't care about stuff like that. 

I guess what goes through my brain is I want to do drop in training at the same place tomorrow and do a lot of wall-heeling to straight up those sits. One good thing like I told her - I know he has really good hips and gorgeous elbows, so it's not that. And while we didn't have anything "official" done as far as his shoulders, the vet got a peek at them as well and they are good. The lady absolutely nodded in agreement and told me it's just laziness on the part of the dogs and she has a dog who does the same slouch when sitting.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

It is a raining, drizzling, misting kind of day so we have worked on a few things where wet ground does not matter.

As mentioned in Aedan's thread, we started Sit Stays the active way inside on the grooming table.

I am just inside from doing some agility foundation:

*Chute:* I took the chute portion off and just used the barrel with all the dogs. Run through the barrel (it has traction strips) full speed to a flying treat in both directions -- they loved it and while Aedan at first wanted to go around, he soon realized that the only way to get the garlicky chicken was THROUGH the barrel  Then we did it again with string cheese and again each dog was zooming from all kinds of angles through the barrel, with heads down to watch the treats.

*Weaves:* I narrowed the channels to 4 inches on one side with the other side flush. I worked angles entries, lateral distances and changes in my motion with Faelan and Towhee, left & right sided weaving (straight entries) with Brady and one weave straight, curve inward to treat with Aedan - he is still mostly straight though since he is still so narrow -- just his head curving a bit towards me; he won't actually be allowed to weave for at least another 6-8 months but he can learn about the poles on his sides and the metal weave supports.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Rained again last night and a good part of this morning but it's okay it is club night so I should be able to train both boys unless it gets real humid like the last two Monday's and the matting is to slippery . Tonight my club has a little " picnic " and everyone brings a dish so even if I can't train I'll still have fun with friends. Tonight is also the last night for a month because the county starts its annual fair so no training till Aug. I cannot remember a June with this much rain .


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

You guys in the northeast are getting all our June rain. It's been a very dry June here, and this weekend a heat wave moved in. Our average June 28 high temp is 76. It reached 104 in Pullman, WA yesterday. At our house out of town (where it is always cooler), the high was 97. It was hot, and it was clear last night that our laboring window A/C is giving out. 

Not much training in this heat. Since the Missoula show, when Maple tried to leave the ring a few times on a hot day, I've instituted a policy of 
1) No Treats in the Ring
2) No Exiting the Ring before the Leash is Attached

I've been leaving an inviting opening in the ring gates and intentionally moving in that direction to set up for the next exercise. Last night, I did only a 2-exercise sequence before their Sunday dinner (burger with their dog food). Maple was very excited. We did a pair of go outs, then I told her we would do gloves. She grabbed a glove from where I had put them at the edge of the ring and raced out. Cute, but Ooops. Reset. 

Back in for another set of go-outs. (Very nice both times, BTW, and sits every time.) Then we did gloves without her leaving the ring. I clipped her leash on before we left the ring and she got her Sunday dinner. I skipped any Rally training for Alder. I had had enough of the heat.

With the dryness and the heat expected to stay through at least next Wednesday, it will be a very dangerous July 4th in the Northwest. I wish they would ban fireworks this year, but I know they won't.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

Nuggetsdad said:


> Rained again last night and a good part of this morning but it's okay it is club night so I should be able to train both boys unless it gets real humid like the last two Monday's and the matting is to slippery . Tonight my club has a little " picnic " and everyone brings a dish so even if I can't train I'll still have fun with friends. Tonight is also the last night for a month because the county starts its annual fair so no training till Aug. I cannot remember a June with this much rain .


I'm with you, I can't remember a June with this much rain ever. Yard is soggy, garden is drowning, and the farmer's crops are suffering horribly. Awful.


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## Nairb (Feb 25, 2012)

Haven't had much time to comment here, or even train, unfortunately. Been doing some light heeling around dinner time, and some fronts/finishes here and there, but that's about it. Busy, busy time of the year for me. Seems like whenever I have time to pull out the jumps, it's raining out!


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

It rained again last so no jumping this morning.

I set up the back ring gates and 2 agility jumps to practice Go Outs (no jumping)

First each adult dog worked some heeling with signals, with Aedan working set-ups (little jumping bean!) and pocket hand heeling - this morning 2 steps seemed to be his max.

Then Go Outs - Faelan: perfect, Towhee: 1st perfect, 2nd she went half way and came over the jumps (luckily set at 12") so a 3rd for her. Brady did very nicely  he did slow down about 3 feet from the stanchion and so was reminded but overall nice. Aedan practiced marks -- not so good at either the wait of marking LOL but he'll get there


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

Training went ok last night but a major mistake on Nuggets part , doing articles he found the first article which was metal too fast picked it up came back 6-7 feet and thought he must be wrong so he dropped it went back to the pile picked up another came back sniffed the first article ( the correct one) picked it up along with the incorrect one and brought both back to me. This of course is an NQ. We repeated articles no further mistakes. The rest of utility went alright. Hombre ' s heeling fair he bumped me a couple of times on the abouts but was always right in heel even on my changing speed . His pickups still sloppy but he is taking the jump on the ROHJ exercise and returning over it set at 16 inches. We also took the bar at 16 three times without running around it. Recalls fast but the fronts poor but last night on group s+d he didn't move for the 3 minute sit or 5 minute down but he was on a flexi. The clubs picnic went well with lots of good stuff to eat and good conversation too good in fact as I forgot the time and was 10 minutes late starting my class for which I apologized but everyone in the class just laughed.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

Had our second open/utility class last night. three other people have joined us. it was a good class, for once Tugg wasn't the class clown  He did really well in a ring with three other dogs, didn't lose his mind. we did group heeling, then moved on to signals and go outs. Did some articles, then gloves and moving stand. This morning no rain, hip hip hooray, did some heeling and figure 8's and a couple drop on recalls.


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## Hombrespop (Sep 3, 2012)

I was pleasantly surprised this morning when we went to SCKC training , Nugget had that " I don't feel like it look" but when we got into the ring he was full of pep and worked beautifully starting with SD that was very well done then the DR all three gloves all correct and good fronts. Signal exercise also well,done but he did lag on one about but his signal were perfect. MSFE great lockup and brisk return this was done again later with my instructor going over him and the second exam was also very good and finally his go outs were good and he took the jumps as directed. I crated Nugget and got Hombre who for some unknown reason decided to be a cooperative puppy today. He did 6 gorgeous go outs today 3to the wall 3 to a stanchion ALL very fast very straight and 5 of 6 when I said " sit " he did one of the ladies I train with regularly was very impressed with this. The bar was jumped twice and he waited till I gave the " over " order with the hand signal. Then 3 ROHJ at 16 inches which he went over and returned over nicely but the pickups were as usual very scoreable and the fronts also weren't what I want but this is a work in progress and he won't be 9 months old till this Fri.so I think he is doing good. Fig8 he bumped me on the outside turn 2x but we reset and then it was done well. Heeling very nice this is coming along faster than any of my other dogs ever did. Recalls fast but fronts were terrible but he did do a decent SFE with me going over him and later another with the lady who was impressed with his go outs but on this one he moved a front paw maybe a inch but still he moved a leg and it was scoreable. Lastly on a flexi we did the DR with only one glove doing the turn in place and he did two of the three turns in place very well and got the glove each time and it was moved from 3 to 1 to 2 position glove pickups were pretty good and his returns to me brisk and for a change he gave up the glove when told out. Today was I know for sure the best training session ever with the " CHALLENGE" and one of the best with Nugget. Tomorrow all three go to the groomers and Hombre really NEEDS a bath from rolling in the mud so no training tomorrow but after today's great session the have a break coming so spa day is perfect because all three love their groomer.


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