Nairb look at training your dog as quality time spent with one of your best buds. Remember the exercises in novice class all have a reason for being there. Heeling = taking your dog for a walk without being dragged- Recall = obviously you want them to come when called stand for exam= stranger being able to pet them without being bitten and saving you a whole slew of grief and the long sits and downs = allowing you to answer the door or greet some one without them jumping on guests or delivery people and other reasons. Training them can and is a bunch of fun and showing them in a trial and qualifying will give you a lot of satisfaction and even if your not competitive it's a great place to socialize both for you and your pet.



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I was like this too. I refused to set any goals and I always told myself we would only take it one step at a time. My only goal was to go as far as we could, and this was when it became apparent we could go farther than I previously thought we could, if that makes sense.

Truthfully (and I am only speaking for myself), I was afraid to set the goals but not reach them. I am also really competitive, so if I commit to something, I better be able to do it well. Molly is my first dog. What do I know about competing? What do I know about what it takes?? I know nothing, but we all have to start somewhere.

We came to a point where the next step was to find a trainer for competitive training, or to stop and move on to something else. We were having so much fun, so of course the only option was to continue. But, the biggest driving factor was that it would be a great waste of Molly's "talent" if we didn't continue. If I didn't think we could succeed, we wouldn't be going forward.

I was pretty intimidated going to the first class, but we went in there and Molly did her thing and definitely held her own. We were able to join in with the more advanced class. She gives me the confidence that I lack and now I am comfortable enough to set goals. If I don't make them, it's OK. We're having a darn good time trying to reach them.

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That's interesting, because being new at this, I was slightly intimidated just showing for the first class for both the beginner and intermediate classes. It didn't take long to realize I had nothing to worry about, because Bella does great. Even the trainers are a little intimidating at first. They have a no nonsense attitude, but that's what you need. Having said all of that, I suspect most others in the classes felt at least as much apprehension as I did. I've found over the years that the best way to overcome being nervous is to be extremely well prepared.




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Grasslands Liberty Belle "Bella" CGC (5-7-2012)

Comet and I are working on contacts (he almost has the idea of two-on-two-off) and weaves still. His tables are really cute with a super-quick down, and he will take any jump or tunnel I point at, from a fair distance away, unless—and it's a big unless—I miscue him. My worst problem is that I bend at the waist when I'm trying to be super clear about the obstacle, which makes Comet think I'm pointing further than I am, so he'll go around the far side of the obstacle instead of taking it. My fault, not his.

But we're making nice progress on weaves and nice progress on contacts, so the only other piece of the puzzle as far as obstacle work is the teeter.

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I learned that given my wake up time of 4am, perhaps editing and submitting videos for review around midnight is not such a great idea <sigh>. Oh well, at least I reviewed the videos at lunch before my instructor did LOL not before others did though.

I found out around midnight that if I bring in a movie clip, and then hit cancel, the clip remains in the video in its entirety; I have to actually delete the clip from thingee at the bottom of the editor screen <sigh>. But by then I had saved the wrong videos to my upload area.

Hopefully anyone who did view the tapes enjoyed my dogs clowning around and my feeling like I did when I was trying to learn line dancing at a local club LOL Hopefully any viewers at least did not see Ms Towhee stealing the stuffed orange pig .... or hear my muttering that I was getting it all wrong agaaaaaaaaain!

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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, I'm looking everywhere for your video clip!!!!!! Where did you stash them

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Be Happy With What You Have!

Finally got some decent temps here, so I took Bella outside for about 15 minutes of heeling in the parking lot of the park behind my house. Lots of distractions - a guy training a lab with a jump, cars coming in and out, kids skating, etc. I've taken her for two walks on most days, but this is the first time we've done outdoor heeling in about 2 weeks. I even got brave, and did a few short recalls in the parking lot. Other than looking around at the scenery a few times, she did great today.

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Grasslands Liberty Belle "Bella" CGC (5-7-2012)

*drained* It takes a bit more energy training, walking, and then training 2 dogs than it does just the one.... o_O

Jacks = I did round the clock articles with him. Bertie was fit to be tied trying to get to the cheesed article while my sister hung onto him for me. I put the scented article off to the side and worked on retrieves seperate, before I put the cheese on it. Then I put the cheese on it and started going around the clock with it, helping him out and REALLY partying when he actually picked up the licked clean article on his own. When I had all the metal articles down, I stopped where I was and moved to the side to work on straight (no cheese, away from the pile) retrieves again with the article and then I went back to finish the clock. And I had a few REALLY NICE retrieves in there.

I did a few take its with the metal article with Bertie. Some take its. Some "hold" starts (me standing behind/over him for control).

We went for a walk and came back and fed both dogs.

I snuck away while the boys were eating and tried to hide, but Bertie came RACING down to find me before I could manage a decent hide. I think we are bonding just fine.

I asked him if he wanted to train. Didn't shout it or anything, but Jacks came flying downstairs. I suspect he was eavesdropping at the top of the steps. LOL.

So he had to practice stays...

I worked on heeling (not using the word) with Bertie. Introduced left circles and left U-turns as I'm REALLY trying to teach this puppy how to move his butt in early. I started too late with Jacks.

We also did stands - he's standing on command.

And then 10-second sit stays.

And now I'm sitting here and can't get up and thinking about how I'm going to do all that again tomorrow and then the next day.....

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Always loved, never forgotten, all our previous boys -

Too funny!! They were on YouTube but have been replaced with the correct ones - none of my doing the 'you're such a good puppy' dance, or Towhee stealing the pig or dancing on her back legs twirling. Faelan being a clown was edited out too - the instructor wants ~2 minutes only And yeah, there was even a 'good thing you're so darned cute' reference when Faelan started bouncing straight up rather than being turned with a 'push' LOL

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

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

Sunrise, you can PM the bloopers video to me, ha!
Jonah and I head to a private lesson tonight. We will work on flat retrieves, ROH, BJ, and all those other fun open and utility exercises. I'm going to suggest no heeling with my instructor since I'm going to someone else for heeling tutoring.
It is a bit of a dilemma with this instructor. She is so nice but I'm one of her very first students and well, she is not very good at teaching me the fine tuning stuff that can make a great obedience team. I've devoted 3 years!! to her teaching me to train my first obedience dog. And now I'm having to go somewhere else to get that extra help. I'm going to try to ease out of seeing her every other week but I don't want to hurt her feelings because she is so sweet.

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Be Happy With What You Have!