Happy New Year week everyone

Training plans anyone?

We got quite a bit of snow, so plans have kind of slowed. Yesterday the wind was whipping and even the dogs did not want to be out & about so we had a lazy day!

This morning I worked with Faelan, Towhee and Casey in the driveway main parking area under the lights; a bit icy so nothing extravagant but some heeling, fronts, finishes, for Towhee a stand, for Faelan and Casey some signals. Brady had the morning off (he is one noisy pup at times!). I have decided if bad neighbors don't care about waking me up sometimes as early as 3:30am, I can certainly train in the early hours (5:30 this morning) as long as it is not loud enough to carry across the road to my other neighbors. I may work the dogs again tonight, but the back yard will be out of commission for awhile, and I will not be on the roads tonight

Field training may start again on Thursday since teacher was plowing a field or two for drills.

Agility picks up again on Wednesday, I share a rental tomorrow and Saturday.

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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 just got back from a 40 minute walk. It was 13 degrees a little bit before I left, and 10 degrees when I got back. If it is not so bad out again tomorrow, I will go for another walk. 10 degrees is cold, but if it is not very windy, i can deal with it.

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Susan

UCD URO1 HighRoller Fast Track Filly CDX, RN, CGC
River Run Absolutely Riveting CDX, RE, CGC
UCD Hot Gold HankyPanky CDX RAE CGC (retired)





"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment." ~Jim Rohn

Fortunately the club I train at on Thursdays is having drop in training New Year's Day , so ill be attending with Nugget. Introduced him to go outs in the house at about 15 ft. With cheese from a can put on my front door and he is catching on. He is starting to take the dumbell but not holding it yet for any length of time but improvements are starting to show.


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I did open floor / drop in training today with both boys.

I worked on open exercises with Jacks - even stays, since there were a LOT of people there. I was very happy with his jumps and drops.

I was concerned about the dogs barking in the crate, but they were quiet for the most part taking their turns in there. Bertie got lots of attention and was sound asleep almost immediately after I put him back into his car crate.

Bertie mainly just walked around in the set up ring with me. I worked on attention (he gave me very nice attention out there), walking, sits, scoot sits, scoot fronts, treat toss comes, and "go touches" to a clip on a stanchion.

The rest of this week -

I'm doing what I have - training Berts every day. He has class on Saturday... so we will see.

Jacks gets trained every time Berts is. He demands it. He won't have another class though until next Monday though.

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Always loved, never forgotten, all our previous boys -

I'm going to join in here...

I had been introducing the dumbbell for almost 2 weeks now and it was not going very well. Molly hated the dumbbell. She would retrieve it but drop it too early (understandable at that point) and she wouldn't take it from my hand without extreme hesitation. Treats finally got her to take it more readily but there was still a ton of "I don't want to do this" on her face.

Her scent articles arrived on Saturday. We are newbies so we won't be training with those for a long time but our trainer wanted me to get a set and introduce Molly to metal. She took to metal immediately and retrieved it happily from where I set them out to air out. Without me asking she would just pick it up (she chose metal among the leather ones also laid out) and come front and wait for me to take it. I DID NOT TEACH HER THIS. I had not even begun to teach her to come front with the dumbbell. So from that I knew she didn't like the weight of the dumbbell..

Yesterday she wouldn't stop bringing me articles so I covered them with a towel and put her dumbbell over it to encourage her to take the dumbbell instead. She wanted nothing to do with it and had even stopped retrieving it. But! Something amazing happened!! When I was in the shower last night my boyfriend yelled "honey, look!" The door was open so I looked out and Molly was holding the dumbbell! And she sat in front of my bf with it! I told him, "say 'give' and GIVE HER A DUCK STICK!" I was so amazed. This morning after she ate breakfast she brought it to me again. I was in my bedroom when I heard her running to me.. I was so surprised to see the dumbbell in her mouth. I stood up. She did a perfect front. Then I tossed it a couple times. Perfect every time! I stopped while we were still ahead. She will now even jump to take the dumbbell from my hands. Yesterday morning she wanted NOTHING to do with it.

This whole thing made me realize.. Isn't it funny what kind of thoughts go into their head? How did it suddenly click for her?

We also played a treat toss (times 10) + come front game to increase speed for her retrieves. Also worked on heeling and halts.. My footwork has been inconsistent on halts so I have to work on that on my own. I will have to work on moving drops. For some reason she drops immediately inside at home but when we work on it outside (on grass) she takes a few extra steps before dropping.

There was no class last week or this week. Even my bf who doesn't train but comes to every class said "I miss going to Linda's."

As a side note.. Molly's first birthday is in three days!


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Yay for Molly! I hope to see ya'll in the obedience ring this summer/fall? Paws-Abilities in Fife and Family Dog Training Center in Kent have fun matches several times a year.
Jonah and I have a private lesson on Sat. for just heeling. Jonah doen't seem to forget how to do all the open exercises so I don't feel bad about not training him much with those.

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Be Happy With What You Have!

Maybe (I hope so)... We are so new at this so I have no idea when Molly will make her debut.


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Oh you are better than I am The past few days the wind was howling, the snow was being whipped around and Towhee did not even want to be outside LOL Today is calmer so they might get a hike, but we also have rental which should tire them out some.

I also might join a friend in hiking up a twisty, mountain driveway to go visiting LOL no dogs will be with me tho unless Ms Towhee goes into heat.

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

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

Happy New Year everyone! The sun is out today here! The sun hasn't been out like this since September. What an awesome start for the new year.

Today Molly and I did treat toss under the legs + running backwards and treat toss under the legs again and come front. It was so much fun for the both of us.

We also did pedestal work. She is used to staying in heel position on the pedestal but now that we are working on fronts I wanted her to move with my face. I then removed the pedestal and did some fronts moving in circles. She did great!

Dumbbell retrieves again today went very well.

Now we are going outside to enjoy the weather!


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Yes! training and promoting training to keep as many dogs out of the shelters!
The APDT is promoting January as National Train your Dog Month.
Check it out for ideas on training: Train Your Dog Month