I figure Sunrise is snowed in somewhere so I'll give her a hand and start the thread this week.

My goals this week were to SURVIVE my first week of 3 classes (oh gosh). Fortunately with Bertie's class being overcrowded, we get a reprieve for a couple weeks. So this week and next will technically just be two classes (phew). And of course just in time for the big January dog show that I want to go (and not just for shopping), we start Bertie's classes again (ugh).

Yesterday was our Open class. I took Bertie along (see my 'plop' thread for my enthusary about how well-behaved the munchkin was. They didn't believe me when I said he was a muleheaded climbing the walls leaping off ceilings brat at home). I was SO PROUD of Jacks!!!! It could be he felt extra inspired having his baby brother there, but he was on his A game as far as doing everything I asked of him. He even had our instructor jaw-dropping when he retrieved/flat the dumbbell without pouncing or mouthing it! That is HUGE for him!

Now I wasn't on my A game... my instructor got after me for a couple bad habits. When I start heeling, especially on the figure 8, I roll from heels to the toes (both my toes come off the ground before I take a single step) before taking a step instead of directly stepping forward. She didn't feel I would get smacked for points off by a judge, but she felt it could mess up my dog and cause anticipation issues. I also was side stepping left when halting on the figure 8. And there were a couple other things like me forgetting my "high jump" command. <- I told him "jump" on one, "take it" on another, and then "go get it" on the other. Seriously.

Even better or best, I left the room with everyone else for the OOS stays. I did go back to reward him halfway through the sit stay because a dog next to him popped up and was resisting the owner putting him back.

And then on the down I popped my head around the corner and watched/praised him because our instructor was walking down the room dropping a heavy (LOUD) pole every few steps.

Tonight we have our first Utility class. I'm taking both boys again.


ETA - this is random, but my Tuesday/Wednesday instructor posted on facebook that while judging a trial down in OH she noticed a LOT of people touching their hair or fussing with their hair prior to setting up. She said this could be viewed as an extra cue to the dog? I DO that - and I know it's a nervous tic. o_O I even do it at class.

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Always loved, never forgotten, all our previous boys -

Thanks Kate Not so much snowed in (although we have a lovely amount of the stuff) but kind of snowed under. Field teacher found a nice field that has blown pretty much clear and the snow mobilers have cut lovely tracks for 250 yard T work LOL So Faelan and Brady boarded the bus this morning.

One of my online courses has me having to think about Front Cross, Rear Cross, Push & Pull footwork on the flat. It has been so long since I had to think about these things, and her (Daisy Peel) method is different from how I do them that I am trying things, recording, reviewing and saying Nope, not right yet! Like I am used to the moving front cross so having to basically practice a 90 degree turn keeps bringing out the obedience in me LOL with 2 reward points yet.

The rear cross is taught as basically a 90 degree turn on the dogs part (in front of me) where I am more used to training the head turn as I step behind the dog.

Tape, review tape, yuck, try again ............. more of the same tonight, after all can't submit a video that might get criticized right ?????? And this of course is with both Towhee & Faelan with Brady being taught but no actually enrolled in the class. Casey will probably need to start too since I spent so long with the others and the videos etc that he didn't get any training time and was very sad.

I too have noticed the hair flipping (and wonder if the handler(s) is even aware that it can become part of the cue?), the twitching, the adjusting of bra straps etc. Oh the things we need to unlearn so we apear natural handlers! I was actually kind of happy to see it mentioned on Facebook. My instructors hammer me for hair stuff; keep it out of the face and your hands off of it - I swear I hear one of them telling me to do something with my 'poodle ears' when I see some teams....

ETA: Brady, pretty much on schedule, has started testing exactly how much pushing he can do -me: Sit, him: please hold while I finish sniffing. me: Here, Him: wait a bit I'm kind of busy. This is during normal every day stuff, not formal training. I actually love this stage of training since he truly starts to learn that while he can certainly test things out, it is in his best interest to 'Just do it'; And yes, he is on a long line outside for the next little bit.

His canines have erupted so he will soon begin his formal retrieve training. He already knows most of the components (give, hold, take it) but this will take him through the formal steps of the non-force fetched fetch training.

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

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

Going training in about 20 min. Went last nite but was asked to give the class as the regular instructor had personal problem so nugget didn't do anything but retrieve the dumbell 3 times as there wasn't time for anything else. He's getting it consistently and bringing it to me but drops it at my feet , got to work on this


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I didn't even get past the first step with my new heeling instructor. After 20 minutes we got to step out for 3 steps when I was stopped again. I will be learning alot from this guy which is what I've been looking for.
Jonah did a couple of nice broadjumps and fronts and finishes. Then we practiced setting up for starting our heeling and giving Jonah a cue to be focused on me with lots of praise when he did focus.

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Be Happy With What You Have!

After throwing and BREAKING my almost unbreakable nylon dumbell we did for the first time the broad jump with two boards and as soon as I threw a piece of cheese over it Nugget took the jump . Good start!
Already ordered new one

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We just did articles today. I don't know how Jacks will do later on when hunting for a scented article, but when it comes to a cheese smeared article - it was a SURE THING. Only problem I had was getting out there fast enough to keep him from shopping and to encourage him to take the article in his mouth. He didn't want that thing in his mouth. Though that part got easier once I convinced him that he would get a treat once he brought it back to the chair.

I now know what "around the clock" means, and I have my own marked mat to show where to set the articles. We are just doing metals right now. Probably/hopefully if we are successful tomorrow and the next day - I may introduce the leather article. Both #1's are pocketed seperately as they will be my scent articles. Instructor said that successful pickup and carry is not necessary before switching to the leather, but I want Jacks to be successfully picking up the metals.

I was relieved it went so well. I planned on leaving early enough to get a little Bertie-training time in. That did NOT happen. We had a handyman at the house and he was blocking me in. And then I had to get gas. And the gas station was packed with on-the-way-homers and then I got stuck in line behind a guy who was having problems with his credit card (took almost 10 minutes before he finally scooted out of the way). Then I jumped on the highway and realized about halfway there that I forgot to grab any collars/leashes for the pup. o_O And then when I got there and was scrambling to gather all my stuff, I realized that the jar of peanut butter I planned on using to mark the scented article was not in the car. I had put it on my car while waiting for the handyman to move out of my way. So it was back home in my driveway somewhere. It still is out there. Somewhere. *laughs* I'm glad we were just doing articles today too, because I forgot the gloves....

But Jacks did fine.

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Always loved, never forgotten, all our previous boys -

So far I had been working on the same the same things for the past 2-3 weeks: mostly heeling (focusing on left turns), fronts of all kinds, and retrieves. We did not have class the past two weeks because of the holidays. Last week though we did our first ever run through! It was a lot of fun. Classes begin again tomorrow. Finally!

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We're not currently training for competition (maybe some day), but I'm going to post here to help with motivation and accountability. I'm sure this is really basic stuff for most of you.

Thursday will be our third week of Intermediate Obedience class.

It was a little on the cold side this past week, so most everything was done in the house.

This week, we worked a lot on fronts and finishes in the house. These were introduced in last week's class, but we got ahead of the game over the holiday break, and worked on these for about 5-10 minutes every day prior to the class. I have found that spitting (actually dropping from my mouth) hot dog pieces in her mouth helps to encourage a closer and straighter front. Sometimes, I just move her back and forth between the front and finish positions. I also throw treats around the room while she waits, let her go get them, and call her back to front position. I usually do about 5 of these. She really loves practicing fronts and finishes. Must be the hot dogs.

Since it's been too cold to do much outdoor heeling, we've been doing a a lot of off leash heeling around the house. This hasn't been introduced in class yet, but it's something we've done for a couple months now. My main objective here is keeping her attention. Now that my hot dog spitting has improved, I've been attempting to spit the pieces into her mouth at a relatively slow heeling pace. I was actually surprised at how many she caught. I won't be doing this with all of our heeling, but I will continue to carry the pieces in my mouth and hand them too her. I've been doing that for a while, and it seems to have helped quite a bit. We've also been practicing the figure 8 in the house. That was introduced in the first week of class. I'm not having a lot of success getting her to speed up enough on the outside turn (I don't know if that's correct terminology, but you all know what I mean). It's a work in progress.

Finally, our trainer wants everyone to focus on our body movements when giving commands. Some people bend over when calling their dogs, etc. I had a bad habit to break on the "down" command. When I taught Bella "down" at 9-10 weeks, I would have her sit, then lower my hand with the treat right in front of her, ending up in between her front paws. Though I have been successful at getting her to lie down doing this over time, this is obviously not going to cut it, going forward. This week, we spent a few minutes per day working on the down command with a reworked hand signal, and with me standing straight up and down. Sounds easier than it was. I resorted to spitting a hot dog chunk at her as a reward for going down with a command and the correct hand signal. She gets it now, but it took a couple of days. She'll pretty much do anything for hot dogs, and seems to prefer them to be spit at her! LOL. I still haven't done that in class yet. Too many people there probably have never heard of that, and might think I'm nuts.

On the trainers syllabus for week three: Moving Down, 270 Left, 270 Right.

By the way, we practiced the figure 8 in class last week with a handler and dog in place of the cones. I was so proud of how Bella just sat there looking up at my face the entire time the other dogs were doing the heeling. I'm sure it's because of the hot dog pieces that were in my mouth, but she would have never been able to ignore the other dogs like that a month or two ago.

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

@Nairb - reading your comment, it looks like you are training for competition. Please keep posting and don't feel shy. Even when you attend classes, it can be pretty tough staying on focus through the week. Threads like this def help. It's a LOT more fun celebrating those successes or banging your head on the wall over problems when you can throw those comments at people who know exactly what this means to you.

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Always loved, never forgotten, all our previous boys -

Thanks. I'm just taking things one step at a time. It seems like things are going well, but when I watch what some of these dogs and trainers can do, I realize how far we have to go. It's not nearly as easy as they make it look. If I get in to something, I generally go all in. I don't do stuff half-a$$ed (is that word OK?), so I'm trying not to commit myself to anything at this point. In the meantime, all of the advice I've received from you and others here has been extremely helpful.


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