Starting the thread a day early since I hope to have a busy day tomorrow.
Plans for the week or things to share?

Towhee is still at Camp Sunfire so she will not be trained.

Faelan continues his quest for Utility - I am hoping he will be ready for competition in the Spring. He is also attending a few online classes (one was meant for Towhee but he is an excellent stand in). He will hopefully be on the field bus a few days this coming week but that is weather dependent with the snow & ice. He also continues his agility training.

Brady will hopefully take the bus a few days as he works towards his JH testing. He may begin fetch training this week - I need to check his teeth. He is in a few class on-line to build body awareness, self control & focus. I am hoping that by building these skills into his foundation work he will rarely to never even require an 'uh-uh' LOL

Casey continues to train as well - depending on what the other dogs have done he is very happy to show them the proper way a golden should do 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

Did you get into your agility seminar?

Gladys is home with her puppies for one week so getting her back in her routine. She does not listen to me at all, won't come when called, etc, so have been reminding her she must listen to me, yesterday twice I picked her up and carried her to where I told her to come. It worked! She's doing better! She can go back out in public the weekend of Feb 9.

Boomer isn't working on anything but has been very good, he does what Gladys is told!

The puppies are working on playing till they get tired and fall asleep. They'll be 5 weeks tomorrow. If they're off doing what they shouldn't I call them and use my hands to get them to come to me, and when they chew the wrong things I give them a toy or antler, they catch on quick!

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Boomer, Gladys, DeeDee, and Dawn

Yay!! Does that mean pups are staying with you beyond the club get-together?

Tomorrow I may be going to an agility trial with Faelan - I haven't decided yet since yesterday I was sneezing and sinusy; not overly fun running agility when your nose isn't quite up to the task 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

Lots of heeling in the house with lots of turns, emphasizing position and attention, a few recalls with finishes, and stand, sit, and down stays.

On the stays, I tried some different distractions. I got an idea from Loisiana from the following youtube video she recorded on "proofing the stand." It went really well for the stand stay using one stick, but I pulled out a second one for the down stay. That was apparently too much, as she broke a few times. That's probably a good thing. I will keep doing it until she no longer breaks.

Did a little training out on the front lawn and street this morning (heeling about turns circles r+ l fast and slow ) all went well out there then I decided to do some recalls and retrieves on the flat . That's when it went bad , threw my last plastic custom dumbell and for the second time in two weeks broke my spare dumbell now I have one ordered but it hasn't arrived yet so training retrieves are at a stand still for now. Couldn't believe it broke on the grass.


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Barb said they're too little to go to the get together, so we can't go.
I want to try to keep them till puppy testing at least.

Hope you feel better and maybe we see some ribbon pix tomorrow :-)

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Boomer, Gladys, DeeDee, and Dawn

I had a private lesson today. We got past two steps today! Jonah and I did some quick bursts of heeling and then I would put him back in the crate so my instructor could work with my heeling....We had some good sessions heeling and a couple of not so great but all in all was a good lesson. I walked away with both hands bloodied from Jonah grabbing the toy when we were playing and his exuberance seemed to get a piece of my hand too.

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Be Happy With What You Have!

By the way.....Bella's prong collar came apart outside this morning. Fortunately, I was able to grab her flat collar before she realized that she was loose.

This is the second time this has happened, and I have no idea why. No, it's not too loose for her. I ask the trainers every few weeks about the fit. We've only added one link in over 3 months.

I stopped and got one of these today (only the one I got is much smaller than the one pictured - for very small dogs). It's for walking two dogs at once. I clip one end to her flat collar, and one end to the leash for a backup, in case her prong comes apart again. I had to tie two knots in the middle, because it's too long otherwise. We're going to make some modifications to it, to make it shorter.

I thought I'd share, so people know that prong collars can come apart.

Max 200 sells prongs with leather woven through, that helps keep it from coming apart.

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Jodie

AJ's Maiden By the Sea CDX RE (Annabel - retired)
Mud E Paws UDX OM2 RE OBHF (Conner - retired with 28 OTCH points)
Sunfire's Flying Head Over Heels UD BN RA (Flip)
And the odd one of the family - Colby Jack Teeter Smack CDX GO RA (Colby - Lhasa Apso)

Leerburg sells a leash with two ends on it for $32.95. Leerburg Dog Training | How to Fit a Prong Collar

They also talk about using a slip collar in conjunction with the prong (at the same link).

Another source recommends using a choke collar with extra slack in tandem with the prong.

That Leerburg link is a very good reference for sizing and fitting a prong.

That Max 200 solution looks interesting. That's the exact same collar we use.

Max 200 Obedience, Agility, Flyball Performance Equipment - Max 200 Agility, Obedience, Flyball Performance Equipment

I was looking for an inexpensive solution, so I stopped by Fleet Farm, and picked up the two dog leash attachment for about $4.

Edit: I guess that's not my collar. I don't have that quick release. Same brand and prongs, though.