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.