Another week to play

Okay, I have been in a training slump but spent some time yesterday preparing my grids with exercises, results etc. Daily, Monthly and notes. Hopefully this will get me back on track since I need to get my butt in gear and the dogs are wanting their play/training time.

I will be heading to Home Depot shortly to pick up supplies for 2o2o boxes ala Agility-u.com, and perhaps front & finish box supplies. I will be using old stick in the ground weaves for the long portions so just need connections. I will also try to find something to using over a few poles that will act like pool noodle thingees for some exercises.

We may have field training today - I was supposed to be at an agility trial but yesterday went crazy what with not figuring on a 4th mouth to feed and so running out of food and having to head to the shoreline for a few hundred pounds of raw food, plus running around for my new Xterra .... Ms Towhee is wearing her 'I'm too sexy for my panties' which Brady thinks are just marvelous - reminding me of that old Coppertone (??) commercial of the pup pulling down the girls panties showing her tan lines LOL. I am not sure if she is in season but Faelan is doing some of his upside down walking with his nose in her privates so the panties will let me know if its time for Camp Sunfire. So best no agility for today.

Tues and Thu Faelan and Brady will be having day field training.

Wednesday Faelan and Towhee (??) will have agility.

I have to figure out how to get hikes and training in as well, it is dark, cold and pretty dreary; foggy, rainy, drizzly <Bleh> <Bleh> <Bleh>

For anyone who is interested in my Towhee's 'she's too sexy' wardrobe and wonder at what bow ties Brady is finding to be such a delight

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Golden moments shared with
Casey, Faelan, Towhee & Brady too !

and forever in my heart, my golden Bridge boys
Rowdy & King

Teehee..those are very sporting...Well plans for today were to go train but..... 10 inches of snow on the ground and another 10 due here today takes care of all training plans not in the house. Good news was this was pretty planned so the chili is on and the homemade buns are rising.. Mighty is wearing himself out running all around the front pen..lol...

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OTCH Dal-Rhe's Sunfire Titanium UDX15 OGM RAE VER TD NJP CGC TDI U-CDX Can CD Wv-N Tn-N OBHF
Sunfire's Touch of Titan Gold---Midas..aka Mighty Mouse.. Super dog in training

Love the panties! Where can I buy them?...

The panties are from FancyNancy's - there is a website She makes really great panties for our girlies !

Brady, Faelan and Casey are off hiking and Ms Towhee is left home. So she got to model and be my guinea pig for my Front & Finish box & my box for 2 on 2 off contacts I am so proud of myself - I am so not handy!! And I am glad I kept those old stick in the ground poles

Of course I could be cleaning, but nah!! Busy making messes - and yes those are scent articles and doggie distraction toys on the Dining Room table LOL I hear some people actually eat off their DR table and not plan dog lessons on it!

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Golden moments shared with
Casey, Faelan, Towhee & Brady too !

and forever in my heart, my golden Bridge boys
Rowdy & King

I worked retrieves this morning... with the pup. And am excited to say he is STARTING to get the idea of "marking" and fetching. We still are not ready to add treats to the mix, because treats still trump toys for him. o_O

The other thing - even though I absolutely DO NOT LIKE tug games with dogs. I realized this helps build his interest in toys right now. He will come running back with a toy if he thinks it will become a game of grrr-tug. o_O He now has a favorite retrieve/tug toy (sorta like a canvas bumper but with a skunk tail).

We also trained attention walking and automatic sits and straight sits.... <- I'm not letting him do any crooked sits while in heel position.

I also did a little wait training <- And am trying to remember how I differentiated wait from stay at this point. o_O I think I started both from heel position? *can't wait for classes to start*

Over all this week - I'm going to be teaching/training the basics with Bertie.

Jacksipants - is awesome sauce. He is starting to get the idea that while I train Bertie and he waits his turn, he will get trained and get as much food as the pup does without having to compete for it.

I want to work signals, drops, and heeling this week. Especially figure 8 heeling which we haven't done in about 3 weeks. o_O

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I can understand why Brady would be interested in Towhees undies. . .they're very eyecatching!

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Zoe, Rockwall Nantucket Breeze, BN, CGC, Delta therapy dog
Zeke, our introduction to the world of Golden Retrievers

WT_?? I am working with scent articles and set them up in the back hall by the washer. Go back to Faelan and up comes my brother with a load a laundry... does he wait 2 freaking seconds? Nooooooooooo, he steps through the pile kicking them to the side to load his laundry and takes his sweet time .. so since he had to kick them out of his way (bare footed btw) and could see Faelan & I waiting, he had to know we were doing something. I finally say hurry up and he gets out of there - without resetting the articles thank you very much. I should have moved everything but didn't so of course Faelan has more difficulties than he should... what is wrong with people?? Seriously, how can someone be so freaking clueless -

ETA: on a more pleasant note, Brady's head is almost at hand level now while he is walking at my side - so heel training can probably be started in a few weeks

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Golden moments shared with
Casey, Faelan, Towhee & Brady too !

and forever in my heart, my golden Bridge boys
Rowdy & King

Sharon - how did you manage holding off starting heeling this whole time? <- Heeling is my favorite.

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LOL - so much to train, so little time. Heeling is one of my least favorite exercises to teach, because I have to try to walk the balance between attitude & precision, I want to praise and encourage effort but have a hard time not striving for perfection and so prefer to wait until I have a lot of other things in place - the sit, hand touches, walking/ running beside me without tripping me, the beginnings of attention etc. Not to mention the beginnings of impulse control since I rarely train on a leash - my dogs have to want to work with me or training stops and another dog gets my attention.

I spend months laying the foundation for obedience, agility & possibly field - they need to learn to tug, play, follow, come, and generally prefer me to anything else in their environment so heeling can wait in my house LOL Teaching games that I can use to liven up heeling, spins, going through my legs, collar grabs have to be trained as a great game etc. And maybe the biggest? I honestly do not want the extreme heads up heeling with my dogs, so by waiting until they are a bit taller, they never learn to crank their heads like that, and also never learn that hackney gaiting either - it is stylish for other dogs but I don't like it for mine.

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Golden moments shared with
Casey, Faelan, Towhee & Brady too !

and forever in my heart, my golden Bridge boys
Rowdy & King

Okay - then this sounds like you've started building the foundation for heeling. Phew. I was thinking - you haven't STARTED YET?!

I'm right with you there about training them to walk in a straight line first. Especially when they are little and pretty much built/shaped like polar bears (see below for the short-fat one)....

I won't introduce the "heel" word until Bertie is probably 5 or 6 months old. But I started training that foundation as fast as I could because I'll never forget my Danny who didn't have that foundation and training heel was miserable. o_O

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