New Title

Kay has yet another title to add to the end of her name. She earned her St.Hubert's Companion Dog ( CD-H ) with two first places and one third. Her scores were 199.5, 199.5, and 199. We need to work on our go outs before we enter Open.

This weekend we head out to K9 Playtime and ACS to do demos. Next weekend we will be going to see Marsha Smith and then head down to Crete for another shot at an Open leg.

Woo Hoo!!!

Success!!

We showed for the second time in Open A. There were 41 dogs entered and 39 showed, about 15 - 20 qualified. The top score of 197.5 went to Kayla! Can you believe it?! I sure can't!!! Second place was a 197, third was a tie of 196.5. Margaret was so happy. I was shocked!!! I didn't think that she was as up as she normally is, but wow! The judge was very impressed with us and complimented us quite a few times. I was so very nervous and need to keep working on the retrieve of high. She really scared me on that. I thought that she wasn't going to come back over the jump, but she corrected herself nicely!!!

I better start working on our utility stuff... Margaret gave us a box to work on our fronts with. It will help with the broad jump fronts. Also can start teaching Dude fronts.

Agility

This past weekend we competed at Rush'N Around in Manhattan. It was a cool place. Two huge outdoor rings and one huge one inside. There were two rings going at once, despite the nasty wind and cold. Kay had a great Saturday, Q'ing in both jumpers and standard. Sunday was not so nice to us. A few miss read handling cues and a missed contact led to a standard NQ, while an eagerness to rush to the next tunnel took kay off course for the jumpers NQ. I will say that by Sunday she was nailing her weave pole entries.

We will be in the Glenbard Obedience trial this weekend. One of 41 dogs entered in Open A. We'll be pulling for Roxy to get her final Utility leg and our first Open leg.

Best go practice our broad jump fronts!!!

Upcoming

We have an agility trial this weekend in Manhattan. Should be interesting if it keeps raining!!!

What a fun time!!!

We set foot into Open for the first time and what a freakin' good time it was!!! It was awesome!!! We didn't Q at all because Kay didn't come back over the jump on the retrieve, but who cares!!! We had a blast!!! The whole gallery had an audible sigh when she missed the jump. Bummer. We're back in action on Nov 1 at the Glenbard trial.

Break down of Kay's run:

Heel Free/Figure 8 : -2 pts for hand position; .5 pts for lag; .5 for wide
Drop on Recall: -.5 pts for poor front
Retrieve on Flat: -.5 pts for poor front
Retrieve over High: NQ
Broad Jump: -.5 for poor front; .5 for poor finish
Long Sit/Down: -0 pts

Success!!!

Kayla earned her AKC CD this past weekend with a 193.5 and a first place. This weekend we venture into the Open ring for our first hand at Open. I can't wait!! It's going to be fun!

Trials to come...

Kay did her first AKC Agility trial last weekend. We were so not on the same page. That's what happens with novice dogs and their struggling handlers. We're still not that comfortable with each other yet. It will come and the noviceness will go away. It did with Bailey. He makes up for where I fail, where Kay keeps me honest.

We have an Obedience trail coming up this Sunday. We're hoping to finish out our Novice title this weekend. I'm excited about our Open entry on 17 Oct, but I can't get too cocky because we need our list Novice leg first. Margaret and I are meeting on Saturday to do a run thru and then some Open drills.

Our next AKC Agility will come at the end of this month. We also have CPE on the books. I'm pushing to finish our CDX before the year is out, then I'll have to focus on Utility. I will most likely zero in on Agility and Obedience will fall to the side of the road for a bit.

Right now we are also working on a special assignment for Janice. I'm attempting to teach it all through back chaining. The first trial session was very promising. I'll have to do some considerable roadwork and quite a few sessions to get it where I want it. It should be fun!

Our Trip

So mom and I are heading to PA to visit Marsha Smith. She says this is going to be fun. I'm going to get to swim, play agility, and learn some new tricks for obedience. Marsha has lots of students that have gotten their OTCHs and that's what mom and I are striving for.

I'm going to learn a whole lot and mom is excited. We're going with our good friend Margaret and her dog Roxie. I really like Roxie - she's a Chessie.

Camp Dogwood

We got the privlegde to go to Camp Dogwood for the weekend. She got to lure course and nearly lost her head! She was out of her brain for it. Spent the rest of the day trying to get it back in, but boy did she have fun. From there we went to the agility course where Kay was a bit off. She still hadn't come back from lure coursing. Then off to the lake for the final stop. This is where the bummer happened. While being a dork in the water she "broke" her tail. She had swimmers tail for the rest of the weekend. It happens...

Sunday we spent a lot of the day hanging out. I had to help with Flyball in the morning and the late afternoon, but our down time was doing just that - relaxing. We did go on a group hike that turned out to be a bit disappointing. It was supposed to be a hike and train, but little training and not so much hiking. Most people had to recall their dogs a lot, but by teaching Kay the auto-check in there was no need to. She kept running ahead and then coming back to check in. The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the heat. Being up in the camp area meant that we didn't have a bunch of people around and with an unused fire pit close by, we made the best of it. A fire going in the pit, the storm was rolling in. Yes a nice big one. We watched it roll in and then decided to retreat to the tent. Man was it a big one!!!!

Monday I took Kay down to the Rally mimi trial. It was a good course. The instructor had me go first and that I did. She was spectacular! No one wanted to follow her. Hey, we didn't volunteer. I wanted to go last for that reason, but the time gave me a chance to chat with this other lady. It was an interesting conversation. We left shortly after our Rally gig. It was a great weekend!

I wished that I would have been able to practice some of our obedience routine, but with a bum tail it was not in the cards...

not the best...

it wasn't the best morning in the world. I got it in my head to work
stands. I wasn't going to accept her taking two steps forward when
doing it either. so I thought I would a target stick - if you will -
to help keep her in positon. oh no the world is going to end! she
could no long think and that meant no stand. cue frustration.... sigh
this is where we lost it. I walked away and told her to come here, as
shes coming she decides shell stop for some breakfast on the way. oh
heck no! into the crate you go!

rules of the house are easy don't think about your food until released
to it. I make it common practice to set the bowl on the floor first
and then work. remember the no touchy rule, goes for the other dogs
too. so we tried again to work. this time I changed it up and we
worked not forging on the left portion of the figure eight. that went
better, but we'll see how much translates later on when we revisit it
this afternoon.

kay also ran like crap during agility today. she did her a frame well,
but the rest was crap. she was missing enterances to the poles,
lagging on sequences... overall poor performance. my solution... run
her brother. this usually gets her pissed, but not so much today.
bailey was vocal and wanting to work. perhaps i'll run him first next
time.

I might leave her home tomorrow.... we shall see....

The results....

We took second in Novice A with a 193. We missed first place by a half point! I know we would have done better if I would have stuck to what we'd trained and gone to the left for the figure 8 instead to the right. One crooked sit and one wide about turn, BUT our recall front was perfect!!! That had been our most worked behavior. Now I know what we need to do badly - take the training on the road! I haven't done enough of that and she was distracted by the environment.

Our showing in Rally Advance B was a bit spacey. We did get a 99, but I didn't like that she was zoned out. I was begging her a bit as we went along and when I stepped up and started walking with a purpose she did better. I didn't even walk the course either. Eh, I've done rally enough to be able to figure it out. The courses are so short that it's no big deal.

All in all, it was a good outing. I'm proud!

Hooray!!!

Kayla earned her TDI title today! Yeah! I'm so happy about it!

Tomorrow we conquer Novice A at the Rand Park Obedience trial....

APDT Trial updates

So the girls cleaned up this weekend! We were able to keep a high average on scores and look good doing it. I was a bit disappointed with Kay towards the end of Sunday, but I shouldn't be. She ended with a perfect score, but I thought we should have had points off for wide heeling. She was very distracted and something was bugging her about being towards the end of the ring. Sandy was able to finish her ARCHX, RL2X and get a level 3 leg, while Kay earned her level 3 title and her ARCH. She's crusing along. She never got lower than a 206 all weekend. Not an easy task. We did have an unfortunate NQ this morning. She was so excited to be done that she stepped out of the ring with out her leash on and the Q was taken away. I'm very disappointed by that, but it was my fault. It was my fault on the NQ on Sat as well. I hesitated at the jump and Kay dropped the bar. I guess she wanted to earn her ARCH the same day Sandy earned her ARCHX. ;-)

I was a bit hard on Kay today. I will have to not let the competitiveness of everything get to my head and compromise our working relationship. I do have to say that I was not nervous at all when I stepped into the ring. Sandy's scores were so much higher this time around. She was tired towards the end, but she kept up. She did sniff a bunch, but I did a great job ignoring that and praising her when she was looking straight ahead. I will say that she is watching because she never missed a halt. It may not have looked like it, but she was paying attention.

I will have to step up the on lead heeling and fig 8 to be ready for Rand Park, but I have to find out some way to make it more exciting and fun. I don't want Kay to go wide on the first turn in the fig 8 or on the about turns. We need the ring experience and to train more. I will need to make it a priority for it to happen.

Now I just have to wait for flyball then I can go home...

Moving along

So it's taken me this long to post another entry. I got to go to the Clicker expo not long ago and it was a lot of fun. Kayla got to go with me ant participate In some hands on learning. We saw another way to approach teaching the obedience exercises. I really am going to use this with Kayla.

Last week during our private I got very frustrated with my instructor. I don't think that She was doing it on purpose, but I could do right. Everything Kay and I did was wrong. She's also against me not holding m4 hand at my belt. Think of you grabbing your tummy like it hurts. Kay understands that heel is heel no matter where my hands are. She actually does better with my hands in a natural position. This way she can watch and give me eye contact. I will try it out this weekend at the APDT trial.

We've also been working on our fronts. My instructor was also not nappy that I want to stand with m4 feet shoulder width apart. A lot of these things are very old obedience habits. Will see how this weekend goes and then how Rand Park's obedience trial goes. I think we will be just fine.

Kay will need to wear a Carpal brace for agility training sessions. Apparently She has some hyper extension of that font left paw. Not a huge Not a huge deal but Something to watch. It would make sense about why she slows down part way through our sessions. Hopefully this will not develop into something career ending.

Wish us luck for this weekend and happy training.

Big weekend!!!

This weekend is a big one!! We have a CPE trial at home. We're up in level two and the courses are going to get harder. It's also going to be Sandy's first time out. We'll see if she will enjoy playing. She has to jump in specialist b/c of her front shoulder. She enjoys it in practice.

We've been plugging away at our Open exercises. We have a correction clinic coming up this April and hoping to be able to do the group. I'm confident that she will be able to do the long down without a hitch. It's the long sit that she is sticky on. I can't believe that I need to start teaching Utility exercises!!! Wow!

We'll be heading to a local facility to do an agility run through. Should be great to touch a new set of equipment.

Excitement

Well, Kay and I will be heading to the Clicker Expo at the end of the month. I can't wait to learn some rockin' stuff.

What I'm most excited about is the choice to head out the PA to see Marsha Smith. She wrote the book Building a Bridge. It's going to be a great opportunity to learn from someone who has been clicker training for obedience - and getting OTCHs - for quite a while. I'll be heading out there in June with Margaret. Kay and I will be taking full advantage of this one in a lifetime chance.

We did it!!!!

Well Kay finished her U-CD today! She scored a 193.5 and 197 for her final two legs. We have a bit of work to do before we head into Open, but we're hopin' to have it ready by April 20.

Over all she was great. What killed us were the sits. Fix those and we'll be fine. Our fronts were off, but that's my fault for not training it very hard. She was solid on her sits and that really made me happy!

So upwards and onwards! Hooray!!! She's now:

U-CD Hi-Jinks Second Chance RL1 RL2 CL1 RN CGC

March 22 and 23 is our chance for legs in level 2 CPE
April 12 and 13 is our chance for our APDT RL3 and ARCH
April 20 is our chance for two legs of our UKC U-CDX
End of April is our chance for our TDI
June 13, 14, and 15 could be finish of UKC U-CDX
AKC Rally dates TBD - hope to finish RA and RE
AKC Obedience dates may be towards the end of the year

We're looking forward to stacking up those titles!!!

Quick Thanks!

I would like to thank Karen Hollis of Siriu Pet Images for the use of this great photo!

IKC

It all came down to this weekend. We'd been training hard with the weaves and contacts. Working some distance, but mainly distraction and focus. The outcome was favorable - not in the sense of a high Q rate, but as far a funamentals go. Collection is still a work in progress, but it's coming.

IKC was a whole new experience for the both of us. It was busy and at times overwhelming. I knew if wouldn't effect our agility performance, but I wondered about our rally. The agility footing was rather bad, but as the weekend progressed Kay figured out haw to manage it. She began to short stride to turn - not what you'd like to see on a regular basis, but a good adaptation to the environment. The send bonuses proved to be our rough spot. We nailed it friday but couldn't come up with it on sat or sun. Sunday's was a weave to jump send. She nailed to enterance, but couldn't stay in the poles. A novice dog error. That will fade with experience.

Rally was a nonissue. She performed like a champ, coming up with a perfect score on fri and a 98 on sat. It would have been perfect had she not missed a beat on the halt sit. With those scores we move to advanced, having finished our novice title.

We now have to turn our focus back to obedience for the upcoming UKC and St. Hubert's trials. Im still waiting for me St. Hubert's number. Im hoping to have our U-CD after this trial. Then on to working the open exercises hard. The sits and downs out of site are going to be tough. Not the down so much as the sit. She'll be happier to not have to do so much heeling and more active exercises. We'll also need to begin the long training road for utility. This is just for UKC mind you. We'll have to do it all again for AKC. I believe that I can U-OTCH and OTCH this dog.

Our goal are big, but the drive is there. Whatever we get we'll have fun getting for sure. Whatever the destination it's the journey there that makes it all worth while.

Progress

So we've been training hard in prep for IKC. We've been working our contacts like crazy, throwing in some weave poles, and collection. We have to work on tunnel call offs and 180s. She's still jumping wide, a lab thing, and we need to get that under control as we are now jumping out full height. This is the biggest reason she's going wide. We've been working a bunch at 16", now we need to get up to our full height - 20". Our showing at CPE today was good. She's still a novice dog with a lot of working drive. We'll iron out the kinks and she'll be great.

As for obedience we've been our best to keep up. We have a trial coming up in March on our home turf. We went to Windy City dowtown to do some work. Still have some kinks in our fronts and need to solidify our figure 8s. Kay was tired on Friday and didn't get enough of a nap, so that most likely played into it. We need to start working on our Open stays and get those fronts up to par. There are quite a few of them in Open and lots of points to be lost. We'll get it though.

All in all she's not looking bad for only being 2 - birthday is in May. We're looking forward to competing in CDSP - St. Hurbert's this March.

half way there...

we'll half of our figure eight is spot on, the other have needs work. it's not that she's out of position or would get points off, she's just not got her head up for attention. it's an aesthetic thing and not required. i'll need to revisit some attention work for the straight line heeling. it's really not fair that we have to heel through agility equipment, but it's a good distraction. her fronts are spot on, she was off on retrieve over high. the recall over jump and recall on flat we perfect - with a perfect finish i might add. we practiced using dinner. that seems to be the ticket for her. it will forever be the baine of practicing, you focus on one point in the routine and the other stuff slips a bit. this is just novice stuff! of course i'm not like most people and am striving for a perfect score. she has the open stuff in the rough, except the out of sight sits and downs. though we will be doing UKC first, i'll practice AKC as well.

there's a fun match this friday night in chicago ridge... that's now closer to my new house, but i don't think that trip will let me go. we have a bunch of stuff to move as we have to be out by the end of the weekend. maybe i can twist his arm and beg a bunch...

on another note, our agility is coming along very well. we tested our knowledge of walk the line last night and wow! does she know it! i don't have to use my hand to signal the turn or the rear cross. now we have to work on collection. need to go back to that one jump for that. it's just about time to bump her up to full height too. we'll have to do some drills at 20". next monday we'll mix the jumps. our contacts are great - they are just running for now. i'll have to start working harder on the dogwalk stop, we'll leave the a-frame running, and for now we'll leave the teeter running b/c she's still not confident on that. we'll address that later.

come see us at IKC in feb. McCormick Place, Chicago IL....

This week...

So this week we focused on Figure 8's. We need to go backwards as bit and work on our left turns. We'll get the body position correct and then work on attention. We'll have to work on our on lead sits. During our private this week we worked for attention during the stand. We were clicking and treating her looking at me and not focusing on the judge. She needs to look at me and not turn her head when the judge comes in the touch her. It will happen. We also worked on the moving stand, a bit of proofing.

On a happy not we got our scent articles! Finally. They are not like the two that I found at FYC. They fit Kay's face nicely, but I would have liked a bit more room on either side for her lips. I'm going to work with the ones I've got. I don't want to send them back again for the 4" ones... She has no problems holding them, we'll see about the pick up.

In other good news, we'll be heading out for hunt training in late February. We'll complete the group and they will be able to help me out. I'm excited to test Kay out on a few puppy marks!!!

Why all this??

Well I needed a place to track my training with the youngest of the crew. It's a place to brag and place my thoughts. She's almost two years old now and is proving to be everything that I hoped for. She's really rockin' in Rally-O, both APDT and AKC. We took a look at where she's at in agility this fall and wow! She's rockin' already. We still need to fix the A-Frame contact, but it's coming along. Same with the poles. Obedience is going to be our newest adventure. We'll see where we're at this sunday.

Yesterday was our training session with Maragret. I always look forward to my sessions with her. This week though was tough. I had to bring Charlie out to leave with his new foster family. I am still a bit unsure on how he's going to be with him. The guys is used to being physically corrective on dogs and that's not going to be good with him. So needless to say I was a bit distracted during my lesson. I know it's not fair to Kayla and not good for us b/c we're showing this weekend. Maragret and I got to talking about about what I was doing in agility with Bailey. She noticed that I was doing a not of no-reward markers. I was doing what Dana had suggested for teaching. I could try to cut back or eliminate it from my training, but I want to mark the fact that he can't skip the poles just because he wants to go. I will try it out the next session that I do. I think that I should eliminate it from my contact behavior all together.

On a different note, I need to work on my figure 8 exercise. I haven't paid enough attention to the details like I should have. I'll have to do what margaret said and set up hidden food in the room before bringing Kay in. I should get a good guage of if she'll hang with me with verbal encouragement. I have no doubt that she will. She loves to work.